Sentencing Research for Sentencing Reform

Wellford, Charles F.

doi:10.1111/j.1745-9133.2007.00444.x

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 5 publications

(1 reference statement)

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“…Finally, research on race, ethnicity, and sentencing has been criticized for having a limited conceptualization of relevant dependent variables (Mears, 1998) and for being dominated by empirical examinations of public sentencing data (Wellford, 2007) that is typically limited to a single guidelines state (Bushway and Piehl, 2007). The current study helps to broaden the scope of contemporary sentencing research by using a nationally representative sample of adult survey respondents to examine a relatively unique dependent variable: public support for judicial use of ethnicity in sentencing.…”

Section: Race Ethnicity Threat and Punishmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retracted: Ethnic Threat and Social Control: Examining Public Support for Judicial Use of Ethnicity in Punishment*

et al. 2011

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Research on social inequality in punishment has focused for a long time on the complex relationship among race, ethnicity, and criminal sentencing, with a particular interest in the theoretical importance that group threat plays in the exercise of social control in society. Prior research typically relies on aggregate measures of group threat and focuses on racial rather than on ethnic group composition. The current study uses data from a nationally representative sample of U.S. residents to investigate the influence of more proximate and diverse measures of ethnic group threat, examining public support for the judicial use of ethnic considerations in sentencing. Findings indicate that both aggregate and perceptual measures of threat influence popular support for ethnic disparity in punishment and that individual perceptions of criminal and economic threat are particularly important. Moreover, we find that perceived threat is conditioned by aggregate group threat contexts. *The authors would like to thank Ryan King for his helpful comments on a previous draft of this paper and Jason Bratton for his helpful technical assistance. Results from this work were presented at the

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Section: Race Ethnicity Threat and Punishmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retracted: Ethnic Threat and Social Control: Examining Public Support for Judicial Use of Ethnicity in Punishment*

et al. 2011

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“…Although contemporary theoretical perspectives provide a useful framework for hypothesizing the effects of a broad range of individual and contextual factors in sentencing, data limitations often preclude precise testing of the underlying theoretical constructs responsible for observed relationships. This is true in the current study as well as in most research on criminal sentencing (Wellford, 2007). First, although we include the standard correlates of sentencing, we lack data on several potentially important offender characteristics that may be related to judicial assessments of amenability to alternative sanctions.…”

Section: Theoretical Import Of Intermediate Punishmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Power of Diversion: Intermediate Sanctions and Sentencing Disparity Under Presumptive Guidelines*

Johnson

DiPietro

2012

Criminology

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Fiscal constraints and shifting political climates in corrections have recently led to a renewed interest in intermediate punishments. Despite their growing prevalence, though, relatively little empirical research has examined the judicial use of alternative sanctions as a sentencing option. By using 3 years of data from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing (PCS), this study investigates little‐researched questions regarding the use of sentencing alternatives among offenders and across contexts. Results indicate that male and minority offenders are the least likely to receive intermediate sanctions, both as a diversionary jail or prison sentence and as a substitute for probation. The probability of receiving an intermediate sanction also varies significantly across judges and court contexts and is related to county‐level funding for these programs, among other factors. Findings are discussed as they relate to contemporary theoretical perspectives on the perceived suitability of intermediate punishments and on the unique role that offender agency plays in the sentencing of these cases. Directions for future research are discussed.

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“…Contemporary research on criminal sentencing in the United States provides substantial contributions, but recent scholarship identifies several key limitations in this work. These limitations include inadequate attention to the role played by other court actors besides the judge, a failure to go beyond publicly available data, a lack of detailed statistical controls and interactions that capture the full gamut of sentencing considerations, and the practice of combining data on various crime types that include mostly minor offenses (Auerhahn, 2007a;Bushway and Piehl, 2007;Johnson, 2003;Mears, 1998; Thomson and Zingraff, 1981;Wellford, 2007;Wooldredge, 1998).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sentencing Homicide Offenders in the Netherlands: Offender, Victim, and Situational Influences in Criminal Punishment*

2010

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Empirical investigations of criminal sentencing represent a vast research enterprise in criminology. However, this research has been restricted almost exclusively to U.S. contexts, and often it suffers from key data limitations. As such, an examination of more detailed international sentencing data provides an important opportunity to assess the generalizability of contemporary research and theorizing on criminal punishment in the United States. The current study investigates little‐researched questions about the influence of prosecutorial sentencing recommendations, victim/offender relationships, and extralegal disparities in sentencing by analyzing unique data on the punishment of homicide offenders in the Netherlands. The results indicate that offender, victim, and situational offense characteristics all exert important independent effects at sentencing and that prosecutorial recommendations exert powerful influences over judicial sentences. The article concludes with a discussion of future directions for comparative sentencing research across international contexts.

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Sentencing Research for Sentencing Reform

Cited by 15 publications

References 5 publications

Retracted: Ethnic Threat and Social Control: Examining Public Support for Judicial Use of Ethnicity in Punishment*

Retracted: Ethnic Threat and Social Control: Examining Public Support for Judicial Use of Ethnicity in Punishment*

The Power of Diversion: Intermediate Sanctions and Sentencing Disparity Under Presumptive Guidelines*

Sentencing Homicide Offenders in the Netherlands: Offender, Victim, and Situational Influences in Criminal Punishment*

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