The failure of race neutral policies: How mandatory terms and sentencing enhancements contribute to mass racialized incarceration

Crime and Delinquency

Volumn 57, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 56-81

  Schlesinger, Traci ^a  

^a DEPAUL UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

colorblind racism; criminal processing; mandatory terms; racial disparities; sentencing policy

Indexed keywords

EID: 78649705090     PISSN: 00111287     EISSN: 1552387X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0011128708323629     Document Type: Article

References (73)

1. Alfieri, A. (1999). Prosecuting race. Duke Law Journal, 48, 1157-1264.
2. Arvanites, T., & Asher, M. (1995). The direct and indirect effects of socio-economic variables on state imprisonment rates. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 7, 27-53.
3. Bales, W., & Dees, L. (1992). Mandatory minimum sentencing in Florida: Past trends and future implications. Crime & Delinquency, 38, 309-329.
4. Beckett, K. (1997). Making crime pay: Law and order in contemporary American politics. New York: Oxford University Press.
5. Beckett, K., & Sasson, T. (2000). The politics of injustice: Crime and punishment in America. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
6. Blalock, H. (1967). Toward a theory of minority group relations. New York: John Wiley.
7. Blumer, H. (1958). Race prejudice as a sense of group position. Pacific Sociological Review, 1, 3-7.
8. Bobo, L., & Hutchings, V. (1996). Perception of racial group competition: Extending Blumer's theory of group position to a multiracial social context. American Sociological Review, 16, 951-972.
9. Bobo, L., Kluegel, J., & Smith, R. (1997). Laissez-faire racism: The crystallization of a kinder, gentler anti-Black ideology. In S. A. Tuch & J. K. Martin (Eds.), Racial attitudes in the 1990s: Continuity and change (pp. 15-44). Westport, CT: Greenwood.
10. Bonilla-Silva, E. (2003). Racism without racists: Colorblind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
11. Bureau of Justice Statistics. (1984). Prison and jail inmates at midyear, 1983. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
12. Bureau of Justice Statistics. (1985-2007). Correctional populations in the United States. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
13. Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2002). Correctional populations in the United States, 2001. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
14. Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2003). Prevalence of imprisonment in the U.S. population, 1974-2001. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
15. Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2005). National corrections reporting program. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
16. Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2007a). Key facts at a glance: Crime trends. Retrieved from http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance.htm#Crime.
17. Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2007b). Prisoners and jail inmates at midyear, 2006. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
18. Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2007c). Prisoners in 2006. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
19. Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2008). State court processing statistics, 1990-2004: Felony defendants in large urban counties. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
20. Chambliss, W., & Seidman, R. (1982). Law, order, and power (2nd ed.). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
21. Chiricos, T., & Delone, M. (1992). Labor surplus and punishment: A review and assessment of theory and evidence. Social Problems, 39, 421-446.
22. Collins, P.H. (2005). Black sexual politics: African Americans, gender, and the new racism. New York: Routledge.
23. Crawford, C. (2000). Gender, race, and habitual offender sentencing in Florida. Criminology, 38, 263-280.
24. Crawford, C., Chiricos, T., & Kleck, G. (1998). Race, racial threat, and sentencing of habitual offenders. Criminology, 36, 481-511.
25. Curran, D. (1983). Judicial discretion and defendant's sex. Criminology, 21, 41-58.
26. Curtin, M.E. (2000). Black prisoners and their world, Alabama 1865-1900. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
27. Daly, K. (1989). Rethinking judicial paternalism: Gender, work-family relations, and sentencing. Gender and Society, 3, 9-36.
28. Engen, R., Gainey, R., Crutchfield, R., & Weis, J. (2003). Discretion and disparity under sentencing guidelines: The role of departures and structured sentencing alternatives. Criminology, 41, 99-130.
29. Engen, R., & Steen, S. (2000). The power to punish: Discretion and sentencing reform in the war on drugs. American Journal of Sociology, 105, 1357-1395.
30. Farrell, J. (2003). Mandatory minimum firearm penalties: A source of sentencing disparity? Justice Research and Policy, 5, 95-115.
31. Fischer, D., Thaker, A., Stewart, T.L., & McDaniel, J. (1992). Mandatory Sentencing Study. Phoenix: Arizona Department of Corrections.
32. Freeman, A. (1977-1978). Legitimizing discrimination through anti-discrimination law: A critical review of Supreme Court doctrine. Minnesota Law Review, 62, 1049-1119.
33. Garland, D. (2001). Culture of control: Crime and social order in contemporary society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
34. Gotanda, N. (1991). A critique of Our constitution is colorblind. Stanford Law Review, 44, 1-68.
35. Gramsci, A. (1996). Prison letters (H. Henderson, Trans.). London: Pluto Press.
36. Greene, L. (1989-1990). Race in the 21st century: Equality through law. Tulane Law Review, 64, 1515-1541.
37. Iowa Statistical Analysis Center. (1985). Prison population, parole, and offender risk assessment in Iowa. Des Moines: Office for Planning and Programming.
38. Jackson, P. (1989). Minority group threat, crime, and policing. New York: Praeger.
39. Jacobs, D., & Helms, R. (1996). Toward a political model of incarceration: A time-series examination of multiple explanations for prison admission rates. American Journal of Sociology, 102, 323-357.
40. Kautt, P., & Spohn, C. (2002). Crack-ing down on Black drug offenders? Testing for interactions among offenders' race, drug type, and sentencing strategy in federal drug sentences. Justice Quarterly, 19, 1-35.
41. Marvell, T., & Moody, C. (1995). The impact of enhanced prison terms for felonies committed with guns. Criminology, 33(2), 247-282.
42. McConahay, J., & Hough, J. (1976). Symbolic racism. Journal of Social Issues, 32, 23-45.
43. McDonald, D., & Carlson, K. (1993). Sentencing in the federal courts: Does race matter? The transition to sentencing guidelines, 1986-1990. Washington, DC: U.S. Sentencing Commission.
44. McVeigh, R. (2004). Structured ignorance and organized racism in the United States. Social Forces, 82, 395-936.
45. Mendelberg, T. (2001). The race card: Campaign strategy, implicit messages, and the norm of equality. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
46. Miller, H., & Blumstein, A. (1979). The impact of new sentencing laws on state prison populations in Pennsylvania: Final report. Pittsburgh: The Pittsburgh Institute.
47. Morelli, R. (1986). The effects of five-year mandatory sentencing in Pennsylvania. Justice Analyst, 1, 1-8.
48. Neugebauer, R. (1996). Police-community relations: The impact of culture on the control of colour. Ann Arbor: MI: University Microfilms International.
49. Nicholson-Crotty, S. (2004). The impact of sentencing guidelines on state-level sanctions: An analysis over time. Crime & Delinquency, 50, 395-411.
50. Omi, M., & Winant, W. (1994). Racial formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
51. Petersilia, J., & Greenwood, P. (1977). Mandatory prison sentences: Their projected effects on crime and prison populations. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.
52. Plass, S. (2007). Privatizing antidiscrimination law with arbitration: The Title VII proof problem. Montana Law Review, 68, 151-174.
53. Rose, D., & Clear, T. (1998). Incarceration, social capital, and crime: Implications for social disorganization theory. Criminology, 36, 441-479.
54. Rusche, G., & Kirchheimer, O. (1968). Punishment and social structure. New York: Russell & Russell.
55. Schlesinger, T. (2005). Racial and ethnic disparities in pretrial criminal processing. Justice Quarterly, 22, 170-192.
56. Sears, D., & Kinder, D. (1971). Racial tensions and voting behavior in Los Angeles. In W. Hirsch (Ed.), Los Angeles: Viability and prospects for metropolitan leadership (pp. 55-75). New York: Praeger.
57. Sellin, T. (1976). Chapter 10-postscript. In Slavery and the penal system (pp. 133-144). New York: Elsevier.
58. Siegel, R. (2001). Discrimination in the eyes of the law: How colorblindness discourse disrupts and rationalizes social stratification. In R. Post (Ed.), Prejudicial appearances: The logic of American anti-discrimination law (pp. 99-152). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
59. Sorenson, J., & Stemen, D. (2002). The effect of state sentencing policies on incarceration rates. Crime & Delinquency, 48, 456-475.
60. Spelman, E. (1988). Inessential woman: Problems of exclusion in feminist thought. Boston: Beacon.
61. Spohn, C., & Cederblom, J. (1991). Race and disparities in sentencing: A test of the liberation hypothesis. Justice Quarterly, 8, 305-327.
62. Spohn, C., & Holleran, D. (2000). The imprisonment penalty paid by young, unemployed Black and Hispanic male offenders. Criminology, 38, 281-306.
63. Steffensmeier, D., & Demuth, S. (2000). Ethnicity and sentencing outcome in U.S. federal courts: Who is punished more harshly? American Sociological Review, 65, 705-729.
64. Steffensmeier, D., & Demuth, S. (2001). Ethnicity and judges' sentencing decisions: Hispanic-Black-White comparisons. Criminology, 39, 145-178.
65. Stith, K., & Cabranes, J. (1998). Fear of judging: Sentencing guidelines in the federal courts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
66. Tonry, M. (1996). Malign neglect: Race, crime and punishment in America. New York: Oxford University Press.
67. Ulmer, J. (2005). The localized uses of federal sentencing guidelines in four U.S. district courts: Evidence of processual order. Symbolic Interaction, 28, 255-279.
68. Ulmer, J., & Kramer, J. (1998). The use of transformation of formal decision-making criteria: Sentencing guidelines, organizational contexts, and case processing strategies. Social Problems, 45, 248-266.
69. Ulmer, J., Kurlychek, M., & Kramer, J. (2007). Prosecutorial discretion and the imposition of mandatory minimum sentences. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 44, 427-458.
70. Vincent, B., & Hofer, P. (1994). The consequences of mandatory minimum prison terms: A summary of recent findings. Washington, DC: Federal Judicial Center.
71. Wilson, D., & Vito, G. (1990). Persistent felony offenders in Kentucky: A comparison of incarcerated felons. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 6, 237-253.
72. Wilson, W.J. (1980). The declining significance of race: Blacks and changing American institutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
73. Wright, R.F., & Engen, R.L. (2006). The effects of depth and distance in a criminal code on charging, sentencing, and prosecutor power. North Carolina Law Review, 84, 1932-1982.