Non-U.S. Citizen Defendants in the Federal Court System

Katzenelson, Susan; Conley, Kyle; Martin, Willie

doi:10.2307/20639911

Cited by 4 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…Among these, results have been inconsistent. Some have found evidence that non-U.S. citizens receive harsher sentences than U.S. citizens (Demuth 2002;Mears 2002;Steffensmeier and Demuth 2000), while others demonstrate that U.S. citizens receive more severe penalties than noncitizens (Katzenelson, Conley, and Martin 1996). The research presented below will shed additional light on this issue with data for the USVI.…”

Section: Theoretical Perspective and Research Questionsmentioning

confidence: 85%

The Effects of Race/Ethnicity and National Origin on Length of Sentence in the United States Virgin Islands

Iles

2009

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Scie

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Although researchers have acknowledged the importance of environmental and contextual factors in the judicial decision-making process, there is a lack of attention to sentencing decisions and outcomes in territorial courts of the United States. Drawing on the focal concerns perspective, this study analyzes the sentences of 583 federal defendants sentenced in the District Court of the United States Virgin Islands between 1997 and 2004. The findings reveal that net of legally relevant factors, Hispanics receive harsher sentences than blacks, and legal aliens receive prison sentences that are significantly longer than those received by U.S. citizens. However, the influence of legal alien status is driven by the harsher sentences imposed on defendants who are citizens of the Dominican Republic. The meaning and implications of the influence of citizenship status and race/ethnicity in a context where race/ethnicity are not overriding statuses, as they are on the U.S. mainland, are discussed.

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Section: Theoretical Perspective and Research Questionsmentioning

confidence: 85%

The Effects of Race/Ethnicity and National Origin on Length of Sentence in the United States Virgin Islands

Iles

2009

The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Scie

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“…Finally, this study attempts to shed light on the conflicting findings on sentence length outcomes for noncitizens. Although noncitizens receive shorter sentences than U.S. citizens (see Katzenelson et al, 1996; Wu & DeLone, 2012), this leniency disappears with the introduction of legal controls. Once legal controls for offense severity, criminal history, and the presumptive sentence are introduced, noncitizens receive significantly longer sentences as indicated in the works of Albonetti (1997) and Light (2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Of the relatively few studies exploring noncitizen disadvantage in the criminal justice system, most reach a similar conclusion. It seems as though noncitizens convicted at the federal level are disproportionately more likely than their U.S. counterparts to receive a prison sentence compared to alternative sanctions even when controlling for legally relevant variables (Albonetti, 1997; Demuth, 2002; Katzenelson, Conley, & Martin, 1996; Light, 2014; Wolfe, Pyrooz, & Spohn, 2011). This finding remains consistent across diverse methodologies and time frames, though the gap varies from as little as a 2% increased odds (Albonetti, 1997), to as much as 9.5 times greater odds (Wolfe et al, 2011).…”

Section: Extant Literaturementioning

confidence: 98%

“…Conversely, noncitizens may be the recipients of leniency with regard to sentence length once incarcerated. Empirical research has found a noncitizen advantage in sentence length ranging from roughly 3% shorter sentences (Wu & DeLone, 2012) to as much as 22 fewer months (Katzenelson et al, 1996), though some variations in the literature are discernible (Albonetti, 1997; Demuth, 2002; Light, 2014).…”

Section: Extant Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

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Equal Justice

Holland

2017

Criminal Justice Review

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Empirical analysis of the disproportionate application of carceral punishment has traditionally targeted race and class inequality while omitting noncitizens as a systematically disadvantaged population within the criminal justice system. Of the limited extant literature on this issue, nearly all have examined overall incarceration odds while failing to account for prison alternative eligibility, inaccurately measuring judicial discretion. Likewise, none have disaggregated noncitizens across nationality, an oversight that implicitly assuming that all noncitizens are equal recipients of discrimination, likely suppressing noncitizen disadvantage. Finally, these studies often fail to include contextual measures in their analyses. Using data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC)’s Monitoring of Federal Sentences from 1999 to 2013, this study examines case-, district-, and cross-level effects of citizenship status, documentation status, and nationality on incarceration odds, prison alternatives, and sentence length for federal drug offenders. The results of this study support the hypothesis that noncitizens receive more severe sentencing outcomes than U.S. citizens, Mexican noncitizens receive more severe outcomes compared to those from other countries, and undocumented noncitizens receive more punitive outcomes, though these findings vary across districts. However, counter to minority threat theory, noncitizen (offender) populations do not appear to influence incarceration outcomes for noncitizen offenders in the projected direction.

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“…For findings with significant citizenship effects, evidence reveals that, compared to citizens, noncitizens faced a greater likelihood of incarceration (Albonetti, 1997(Albonetti, , 1998Demuth, 2002;Johnson & Betsinger, 2009;Kautt & DeLone, 2006;Ulmer, 2005), received longer sentences (Albonetti, 2002;Johnson & Betsinger, 2009;Kautt & DeLone, 2006;Mustard, 2001;Schanzenbach, 2005;Ulmer, 2005), had the lower odds of receiving a substantial assistance departure (Johnson & Betsinger, 2009;Johnson, Ulmer, & Kramer, 2008;Wu & Spohn, 2010), were less likely to be granted all types of departures combined (Schanzenbach, 2005), and received a shorter length of sentence discounts (Johnson et al, 2008). Other scholars found evidence in regard to the shorter length of the sentence (Katzenelson, Conley, & Martin, 1996;Wolfe, Pyrooz, & Spohn, 2011;Wu & Spohn, 2010), the greater likelihood of a downward departure (Johnson & Betsinger, 2009;Maxfield & Burchfield, 2002), and the greater likelihood of a government-sponsored departure (Hartley & Armendariz, 2011) for noncitizens than for citizens.…”

Section: Focal Concerns Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Revisiting the Normal Crime and Liberation Hypotheses

DeLone

2012

Criminal Justice Review

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The established sentencing scholarship focusing on race/ethnicity and sentencing disparity indicates that the effect of race/ethnicity on sentencing severity varies across offense types. However, it is not clear whether this argument holds true when race/ethnicity is replaced with offender citizenship status as the primary variable of interest. In light of the research gap, this study extends beyond the existing literature exclusively on race/ethnicity by investigating the nexus between citizenship status, offense types, and sentencing outcomes through the normal crime hypothesis and the liberation hypothesis. Using the Monitoring of Federal Criminal Sentences data that include information on all offenders sentenced in 17 federal district courts for fiscal years 2006-2008, the present study assesses the independent and interactive effects of citizenship status and offense types on the judicial sentence length decision. Findings reveal that although models fail to support the normal crime hypothesis, there is robust support for the liberation hypothesis.It has been more than four decades since the normal crime and liberation hypotheses drew the attention of scholars in criminal courts and sentencing. According to the normal crime hypothesis, the regular characteristics of offenses and offenders lead courtroom actors to develop norms of processing a case effectively; as a result, cases may be handled differently, depending on whether a particular offense is considered typical of the specific group to which the offender belongs (see Hawkins, 1987;Sudnow, 1965). The liberation hypothesis suggests that courtroom decision makers are liberated from legal restrictions and have greater discretion in deciding a case when there is a high degree of ambiguity about a case or when the seriousness of an offense is low

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Non-U.S. Citizen Defendants in the Federal Court System

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

The Effects of Race/Ethnicity and National Origin on Length of Sentence in the United States Virgin Islands

The Effects of Race/Ethnicity and National Origin on Length of Sentence in the United States Virgin Islands

Equal Justice

Revisiting the Normal Crime and Liberation Hypotheses

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