Trial Penalties in Federal Sentencing: Extra‐Guidelines Factors and District Variation

Distinguishing Race Effects on Pre-Trial Release and Sentencing Decisions

“…Other results consistent with extant findings for imprisonment include the much stronger effects of legal factors relative to extra-legal factors (e.g., Miethe, 1987;Steffensmeier et al, 1998;Ulmer, 1997;Wooldredge, 2009), and the significance of extra-legal effects including sex, age, education, means of support, residence length, and the interaction between a defendant's race, sex, and age (recent support for three or more of these factors include Doerner & Demuth, 2010;Griffin & Wooldredge, 2006;Holleran & Spohn, 2004;Johnson, 2005Johnson, , 2006Koons-Witt, 2002;Muhlhausen, 2004;Spohn & Holleran, 2000;Steffensmeier & Demuth, 2000Tapia, 2010;Ulmer et al, 2010;Ulmer & Johnson, 2004;Wooldredge, 2007).…”

“…Studies of earlier stages of case processing have grown since the mid-1980s but remain relatively rare (e.g., Albonetti, 1989Albonetti, , 1990Crutchfield, Bridges, & Pitchford, 1994;Demuth, 2003;Demuth & Steffensmeier, 2004;Katz & Spohn, 1995;Holmes, Hosch, Daudistel, Perez, & Graves, 1996;Kingsnorth, MacIntosh, & Sutherland, 2002;LaFree, 1985, Miethe, 1987Petersilia, 1983;Spohn, Gruhl, & Welch, 1987;Ulmer et al, 2010;Wooldredge, 1998;Zatz, 1985).…”

Defending the Homeland: Judicial Sentencing Practices for Federal Immigration Offenses

“…3 Consistent with previous sentencing research (Engen & Gainey, 2000;USSC, 2004), the presumptive minimum sentence was used as a proxy for the legally relevant factors; this variable controls for offense seriousness, previous criminal history, any aggravating and mitigating factors, as well as any applicable statutory minimums. We also include a control variable for the defendant's criminal history score separately as previous research suggests it may be a consideration in the minds of judges beyond the presumptive minimum sentence (Doerner & Demuth, 2010;Johnson & Betsinger, 2009;Ulmer, Eisenstein, & Johnson, 2010). 4 This may especially be the case for immigration cases where previous criminal history may be the very reason the offender's current offense is a federal felony.…”

To Detain or Not to Detain? Using Propensity Scores to Examine the Relationship Between Pretrial Detention and Conviction

“…In addition, more serious crimes are also more likely to go to trial, which takes longer and has a lower likelihood of conviction than a plea. 8 Defendants with more serious criminal histories may have less to lose and be more willing to go to trial (see Ulmer, Eisenstein, and Johnson, 2009). The finding that offense seriousness is negatively associated with likelihood of conviction is remarkable and should be explored in future work.…”