On the Racial Disproportionality of United States' Prison Populations

Blumstein, Alfred

doi:10.2307/1143193

Cited by 301 publications

(269 citation statements)

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“…One of many possibilities here involves the potentially unseen impact of the victim. The majority of violent crime is intra-racial, and one theory of bias in the criminal justice system is that court decision-makers undervalue black victims (see Baldus, Pulaski, and Woodworth, 1983;Blumstein, 1993). Since black victims are most likely to be victimized by black offenders, if courtroom actors do sentence crimes with black victims less punitively, this practice could confound the race x severity interaction and actually result in a black advantage at high severity levels that encompass violent crimes against the person.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While much progress has been made toward these objectives, scholars such as Baumer (2013) and Ulmer (2012) continue to highlight the need for studies that examine not just whether race matters in sentencing, but also how and when race factors into judicial decisionmaking (see also Spohn, 2000). These calls are reinforced by a growing literature that finds racial disparities in certain parts of the criminal justice process but not others (e.g., Blumstein, 1982, Kutateladze et al, 2014Rehavi and Starr, 2014). Moreover, there has been a particular emphasis on the need to examine sentencing practices in a broader variety of contexts-in places other than guidelines jurisdictions like Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Washington, and the federal system, which have dominated the literature (Engen, 2009;Reitz, 2009;Ulmer, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Conditional Race Disparities in Criminal Sentencing: A Test of the Liberation Hypothesis from a Non-Guidelines State

Hester

Hartman

2014

SSRN Journal

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Objectives: To test the liberation hypothesis in a judicial context unconstrained by sentencing guidelines.Methods: We examined cross-sectional sentencing data (n = 17,671) using a hurdle count model, which combines a binary (logistic regression) model to predict zero counts and a zero-truncated negative binomial model to predict positive counts. We also conducted a series of Monte Carlo simulations to demonstrate that the hurdle count model provides unbiased estimates of our sentencing data and outperforms alternative approaches.Results: For the liberation hypothesis, results of the interaction terms for race x offense severity and race x criminal history varied by decision type. For the in/out decision, criminal history moderated the effects of race: among offenders with less extensive criminal histories blacks were more likely to be incarcerated; among offenders with higher criminal histories this race effect disappeared. The race x offense severity interaction was not significant for the in/out decision. For the sentence length decision, offense severity moderated the effects of race: among offenders convicted of less serious crimes blacks received longer sentences than whites; among offenders convicted of crimes falling in the most serious offense categories the race effect became nonsignificant for Felony D offenses and transitioned to a relative reduction for blacks for the most serious Felony A, B, and C categories. The race x criminal history interaction was not significant for the length decision.Conclusions: There is some support for the liberation hypothesis in this test from a nonguidelines jurisdiction. The findings suggest, however, that the decision to incarcerate and the sentence length decision may employ different processes in which the interactions between race and seriousness measures vary.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conditional Race Disparities in Criminal Sentencing: A Test of the Liberation Hypothesis from a Non-Guidelines State

Hester

Hartman

2014

SSRN Journal

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“…8 Previous empirical efforts using aggregate data to explain disparities in incarceration rates among Blacks focused on differential involvement at the arrest stage. Some of the most widely cited studies were those conducted by Blumstein. 9, 10 Blumstein used aggregate US data to determine whether differential incarceration rates could be explained by differential arrest rates. For 3 different years between 1974 and 1991, Blumstein found that 76% to 86% of the difference in national imprisonment rates between Blacks and Whites could be explained by differential criminal involvement at the arrest stage.…”

Section: Disparities In Criminal Court Referrals To Drug Treatment Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disparities in Criminal Court Referrals to Drug Treatment and Prison for Minority Men

2013

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Objectives. We investigated the extent to which racial/ethnic disparities in prison and diversion to drug treatment were explained by current arrest and criminal history characteristics among drug-involved offenders, and whether those disparities decreased after California’s Proposition 36, which mandated first- and second-time nonviolent drug offenders drug treatment instead of prison. Methods. We analyzed administrative data on approximately 170 000 drug-involved arrests in California between 1995 and 2005. We examined odds ratios from logistic regressions for prison and diversion across racial/ethnic groups before and after Proposition 36. Results. We found significant disparities in prison and diversion for Blacks and Hispanics relative to Whites. These disparities decreased after controlling for current arrest and criminal history characteristics for Blacks. Proposition 36 was also associated with a reduction in disparities, but more so for Hispanics than Blacks. Conclusions. Disparities in prison and diversion to drug treatment among drug-involved offenders affect hundreds of thousands of citizens and might reinforce imbalances in criminal justice and health outcomes. Our study indicated that standardized criminal justice policies that improved access to drug treatment might contribute to alleviating some share of these disparities.

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“…

Many scholars have noted that the war on drugs is an important cause of rising incarceration rates and of racial disparities in prison and jail populations (Blumstein 1993;Duster 1997;Tonry 1995). Researchers have also documented the adverse effects of incarceration for the individuals and communities most affected (Clear et al

…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Drug Use, Drug Possession Arrests, and the Question of Race: Lessons from Seattle

et al. 2005

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On the Racial Disproportionality of United States' Prison Populations

Cited by 301 publications

References 0 publications

Conditional Race Disparities in Criminal Sentencing: A Test of the Liberation Hypothesis from a Non-Guidelines State

Conditional Race Disparities in Criminal Sentencing: A Test of the Liberation Hypothesis from a Non-Guidelines State

Disparities in Criminal Court Referrals to Drug Treatment and Prison for Minority Men

Drug Use, Drug Possession Arrests, and the Question of Race: Lessons from Seattle

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