The Unjust Plight of Minorities and Punishment: A Crime-Specific Approach Exploring Intersectionality, Racial/Ethnic Threat, and Sentencing

• In Event: Racial and Intersectional Inequality in Courts and Sentencing

Abstract

Prior research suggests that minorities receive more punitive sentencing outcomes than others, net of legally relevant factors. In other words, there is a punishment penalty for being a minority, especially for younger minorities. Despite this, few studies have explored the extent of disparities stemming from the combined effects of status characteristics across contexts and offense categories. The current study seeks to address the inattention of analyzing the intersection of individual-level status characteristics across racial/ethnic contexts among specific types of offenses and how these crime-specific effects contribute to sentencing disparities. Using recent data to test the hypotheses, the results indicate that the combined effects of race, ethnicity, sex, and age significantly influence sentencing outcomes across some offense categories. Additionally, an area's racial/ethnic context significantly impacts the punishment that defendants receive when they commit certain crimes. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of incorporating macro-social and combined demographic measures to assess the discrepancies in punishment.

Author

• Porche' A.W. Okafor, North Carolina A&T State University