Abstract
This study uses data on Pennsylvania sentencing practices to compare the sentence outcomes of white, black, and Hispanic defendants. Besides the overall more lenient treatment of white defendants, our main finding is that Hispanic defendants are the defendant subgroup most at risk to receive the harshest penalty. This pattern is held across all comparisons - i.e., for both the in/out and term-length decisions and for both drug and nondrug cases. These findings are consistent with the "focal concerns" framework on sentencing and with hypotheses drawn from the writings on prejudice and intergroup hostility suggesting that the specific social and historical context facing Hispanic Americans will exacerbate perceptions of their cultural dissimilarity and the "threat" they pose.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 145-176 |
| Number of pages | 32 |
| Journal | Criminology |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| State | Published - Feb 1 2001 |
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All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Pathology and Forensic Medicine
- Law
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Ethnicity and judges' sentencing decisions : Hispanic-black-white comparisons. / Steffensmeier, Darrell; Demuth, Stephen.
In: Criminology, Vol. 39, No. 1, 01.02.2001, p. 145-176.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Ethnicity and judges' sentencing decisions
T2 - Hispanic-black-white comparisons
AU - Steffensmeier, Darrell
AU - Demuth, Stephen
PY - 2001/2/1
Y1 - 2001/2/1
N2 - This study uses data on Pennsylvania sentencing practices to compare the sentence outcomes of white, black, and Hispanic defendants. Besides the overall more lenient treatment of white defendants, our main finding is that Hispanic defendants are the defendant subgroup most at risk to receive the harshest penalty. This pattern is held across all comparisons - i.e., for both the in/out and term-length decisions and for both drug and nondrug cases. These findings are consistent with the "focal concerns" framework on sentencing and with hypotheses drawn from the writings on prejudice and intergroup hostility suggesting that the specific social and historical context facing Hispanic Americans will exacerbate perceptions of their cultural dissimilarity and the "threat" they pose.
AB - This study uses data on Pennsylvania sentencing practices to compare the sentence outcomes of white, black, and Hispanic defendants. Besides the overall more lenient treatment of white defendants, our main finding is that Hispanic defendants are the defendant subgroup most at risk to receive the harshest penalty. This pattern is held across all comparisons - i.e., for both the in/out and term-length decisions and for both drug and nondrug cases. These findings are consistent with the "focal concerns" framework on sentencing and with hypotheses drawn from the writings on prejudice and intergroup hostility suggesting that the specific social and historical context facing Hispanic Americans will exacerbate perceptions of their cultural dissimilarity and the "threat" they pose.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0041075817&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0041075817&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0041075817
VL - 39
SP - 145
EP - 176
JO - Criminology
JF - Criminology
SN - 0011-1384
IS - 1
ER -