Citizenship and Federal Sentencing Outcomes

• In Event: Roundtable: Sentencing and Judicial Decision-Making

Abstract

Prior literature suggests that the citizenship and nationality of defendants affect federal sentencing outcomes. The majority of these studies, however, focus on final sentencing outcomes, including in/out decisions and prison sentence length. As a result, limited information exists on whether and via what mechanisms the citizenship or nationality of defendants explains the sentencing disparities. Using federal sentencing data (2019-2023), the current study addresses these gaps by examining the relationship between citizenship and nationality on federal sentencing outcomes, while addressing a mediating effect of a pre-trial decision. The findings of the study will advance our understanding of the different sources of disparities in sentencing. In this roundtable, we will also discuss the theory, research, and policy implications of our research.

Authors

• Pranjali Ravindra Sathe, University of Cincinnati

• Doyun Koo, University of Memphis