Racial disparity in federal criminal sentences

Journal of Political Economy

Volumn 122, Issue 6, 2014, Pages 1320-1354

  Marit Rehavi, M ^a   Starr, Sonja B ^b  

^a CANADIAN INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH   (Canada)

^b UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

BLACK POPULATION; CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY; RACIAL DISPARITY; RACIAL IDENTITY; SOCIAL JUSTICE;

EID: 84920492637     PISSN: 00223808     EISSN: 1537534X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/677255     Document Type: Article

References (53)

1. Altonji, J. G., and C. R. Pierret. 2001. “Employer Learning and Statistical Discrimination.” Q. J.E. 116 (1): 313-50.
2. Andridge, R., and R. Little. 2010. “A Review of Hot Deck Imputation for Survey Non-response.” Internat. Statis. Rev. 78 (1): 40-64.
3. Angrist, J., E. Bettinger, and M. Kremer. 2006. “Long-Term Educational Consequences of Secondary School Vouchers: Evidence from Administrative Records in Colombia.” A.E.R. 96 (3): 847-62.
4. Antonovics, K., and B. G. Knight. 2009. “A New Look at Racial Profiling: Evidence from the Boston Police Department.” Rev. Econ. and Statis. 91:163-77.
5. Ashcroft, J. 2003. “Department Policy Concerning Charging Offenses, Disposition of Charges, and Sentencing.” Memorandum (September 22), US Dept. Justice, Washington, DC.
6. Baker, S., and C. Mezzetti. 2001. “Prosecutorial Resources, Plea Bargaining, and the Decision to Go to Trial.” J. Law, Econ., and Org. 17:149-67.
7. Bjerk, D. 2005. “Making the Crime Fit the Penalty: The Role of Prosecutorial Discretion under Mandatory Minimum Sentencing.” J. Law and Econ. 48:591-625.
8. Bloomfield, P., and W. Steiger. 1983. Least Absolute Deviations: Theory, Applications and Algorithms. Boston: Birkhauser.
9. Blumstein, A. 2011. “Bringing Down the U.S. Prison Population.” Prison J. 91 (3): 12S-26S.
10. Bollinger, C. R. 1996. “Bounding Mean Regressions When a Binary Regressor Is Mismeasured.” J. Econometrics 73 (2): 387-99.
11. Bonczar, T. P. 2003. Prevalence of Imprisonment in the U.S. Population, 1974-2001. Washington, DC: US Dept. Justice. http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/piusp01.pdf.
12. Bushway, S., E. Owens, and A. Piehl. 2012. “Sentencing Guidelines and Judicial Discretion: Quasi-experimental Evidence from Human Calculation Errors.” J. Empirical Legal Studies 9 (2): 291-319.
13. Carson, E. A., and W. J. Sabol. 2012. Prisoners in 2011. NCJ 239808. Washington, DC: US Dept. Justice, Bur. Justice Statis.
14. Clear, T. R., and J. Austin. 2009. “Reducing Mass Incarceration: Implications of the Iron Law of Prison Populations.” Harvard Law and Policy Rev. 3:307-24.
15. Congressional Research Service. 2013. The Federal Prison Population Buildup: Overview, Policy Changes, Issues, and Options. Report 7-5700. Washington, DC: Congressional Res. Service.
16. Curry, P., and T. Klumpp. 2009. “Crime, Punishment, and Prejudice.” J. Public Econ. 93:73-84.
17. Easterbrook, F. H. 1983. “Criminal Procedure as a Market System.” J. Legal Studies 12:289-332.
18. Erikson, T. 1993. “Restricting Regression Slopes in the Errors-in-Variables Model by Bounding the Error Correlation.” Econometrica 61 (4): 959-69.
19. Fischman, J. B., and M. M. Schanzenbach. 2012. “Racial Disparities under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines: The Role of Judicial Discretion and Mandatory Minimums.” J. Empirical Legal Studies 9:729-64.
20. Fong, C. M., and E. F. P. Luttmer. 2009. “What Determines Giving to Hurricane Katrina Victims? Experimental Evidence on Racial Group Loyalty.” American Econ. J.: Appl. 1 (2): 64-87.
21. Gelman, A., J. Fagan, and A. Kiss. 2007. “Analysis of the New York City Police Department’s ‘Stop-and-Frisk’ Policy in the Context of Claims of Racial Bias.” J. American Statis. Assoc. 102:813-23.
22. Gilbert, Scott A., and M. T. Johnson. 1996. “The Federal Judicial Center’s 1996 Survey of Judicial Experience.” Fed. Sentencing Rev. 9:87-93.
23. Glaeser, E. L., D. P. Kessler, and A. M. Piehl. 2000. “What Do Prosecutors Maximize?” American Law and Econ. Rev. 13 (2): 259-90.
24. Goette, L., D. Huffman, and S. Meier. 2006. “The Impact of Group Membership on Cooperation and Norm Enforcement: Evidence Using Random Assignment to Real Social Groups.” A.E.R. 96 (2): 212-16.
25. Johnson, W., Y. Kitamura, and D. Neal. 2000. “Evaluating a Simple Method for Estimating Black-White Gaps in Median Wages.” A.E.R. 90 (2): 339-43.
26. Kessler, D. P., and A. M. Piehl. 1998. “The Role of Discretion in the Criminal Justice System.” J. Law, Econ., and Org. 14:256-76.
27. Klepper, S. 1988. “Bounding the Effects of Measurement Error in Regressions Involving Dichotomous Variables.” J. Econometrics 37:343-59.
28. Klepper, S., and E. Leamer. 1984. “Consistent Sets of Estimates for Regressions with Errors in All Variables.” Econometrica 52 (1): 163-84.
29. Knowles, J., N. Persico, and P. Todd. 2001. “Racial Bias in Motor Vehicle Searches.” J.P.E. 109 (1): 203-29.
30. Landes, W. M. 1971. “An Economic Analysis of the Courts.” J. Law and Econ. 14:61-108.
31. Linder, D. O. 1996. “Juror Empathy and Race.” Tennessee Law Rev. 63:887-916.
32. Miethe, T. D. 1987. “Charging and Plea Bargaining Practices under Determinate Sentencing.” J. Criminal Law and Criminology 78:155-76.
33. Miller, M. L. 2004. “Domination and Dissatisfaction: Prosecutors as Sentencers.” Stanford Law Rev. 56:1211-76.
34. Mustard, D. B. 2001. “Racial, Ethnic and Gender Disparities in Sentencing: Evidence from the U.S. Federal Courts.” J. Law and Econ. 44:285-314.
35. Nowacki, J. S. 2013. “Race, Ethnicity, and Judicial Discretion: The Influence of the United States v. Booker Decision.” Crime and Delinquency. Electronically published January 16.
36. Pew Center on the States. 2008. One in 100: Behind Bars in America, 2008. http://www.pewstates.org/uploadedFiles/PCS_Assets/2008/one%20in%20100.pdf.
37. Posner, R. A., and A. H. Yoon. 2011. “What Judges Think of the Quality of Legal Representation.” Stanford Law Rev. 63:317-50.
38. Powell, J. 1986. “Censored Regression Quantiles.” J. Econometrics 32 (1): 143-55.
39. Schulhofer, S. J., and I. Nagel. 1997. “Plea Negotiations under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.” Northwestern Univ. Law Rev. 91:1284-1316.
40. Scott, R. W. 2010. “Inter-judge Sentencing Disparity after Booker: A First Look.” Stanford Law Rev. 63 (1): 1-66.
41. Shermer, L. O., and B. D. Johnson. 2010. “Criminal Prosecutions: Examining Prosecutorial Discretion and Charge Reductions in U.S. Federal District Courts.” Justice Q. 27:394-95.
42. Skolnik, S. 1999. “Grand Jury: Power Shift?” Legal Times, April 12.
43. Starr, S. B. 2012. “Gender Disparity in Federal Criminal Cases.” Law and Economics Research Paper no. 12-018, Univ. Michigan.
44. Stemen, D., A. F. Rengifo, and J. Wilson. 2006. “Of Fragmentation and Ferment: The Impact of State Sentencing Policies on Incarceration Rates, 1975-2002.” Manuscript, Dept. Justice, Washington, DC.
45. Stith, K. 2008. “The Arc of the Pendulum: Judges, Prosecutors, and the Exercise of Discretion.” Yale Law J. 117:1420-97.
46. Tonry, M. 2011. “Crime and Criminal Justice.” In The Oxford Handbook of Crime and Criminal Justice, edited by M. Tonry. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.
47. Ulmer, J. T., M. T. Light, and J. H. Kramer. 2011. “Racial Disparity in the Wake of the Booker/Fanfan Decision: An Alternative Analysis to the USSC’s 2010 Report.” Criminology and Public Policy 10:1077-1118.
48. US General Accounting Office. 2013. Bureau of Prisons: Opportunities Exist to Enhance the Transparency of Annual Budget Justifications. Publication no. GAO-14-121. Washington, DC: US General Accounting Office.
49. US Sentencing Commission. 2010. Demographic Differences in Federal Sentencing Practices. Washington, DC: US Sentencing Comm.
50. US Sentencing Commission. 2011. Report to Congress: Mandatory Minimum Penalties in the Federal Criminal Justice System. Washington, DC: US Sentencing Comm.
51. US Sentencing Commission. 2012. Report on the Continuing Impact of United States v. Booker on Federal Sentencing. Washington, DC: US Sentencing Comm.
52. US Sentencing Commission.2013. Preliminary Crack Retroactivity Data Report. Washington, DC: US Sentencing Comm.
53. Warner, M. C. 2004. “The Trials and Tribulations of Petty Offenses in the Federal Courts.” New York Univ. Law Rev. 79:2417-49.