Racial Threat and the Sanctioning of Drug Defendants

• In Event: Racial, Economic, and Political Threat in Punishment

Abstract

The current study tests the validity of racial threat theory while considering the possible offsetting effects of racial contact on the sanctioning of felony drug defendants. Using a hierarchical generalized linear model (HGLM) to appraise the opposing effects, multilevel results show that Blacks are more likely than Whites to be sentenced to jail or prison for a drug-related offense, controlling for other defendant and contextual variables. Additionally, while initial results revealed no substantive effect of the size of the Black population and the percentage of Black drug offenders on the probability of a black drug offender receiving an incarcerative sentence when these variables were included in the equation separately, they became statistically significant in opposite directions when included in the same equation. These findings suggest a cooperative suppression effect where the size of the local Black population and the percentage of Black drug offenders both serve as suppressor variables. In the present case, the unique relationship that each Black population variable has with the incarceration of Black drug defendants is suppressed by the positive relationship they have with each other. The implications of the findings are discussed.

Author

• Patrick Moricette, Florida Atlantic University