Racial Discrimination in Sentencing

Paper Summary:

The paper examines the article "Judging Judicial Discretion: Legal Factors and Racial Discrimination in Sentencing" where the authors attempt to determine whether judges in Maryland are racially discriminatory in their sentencing decisions. The paper studies their hypothesis that even in a state with voluntary sentencing guidelines, African-American offenders are being sentenced more harshly than whites. The paper looks at the trend the authors discovered regarding judges hiding behind legal factors to issue disparate sentences and agrees with the authors' conclusion that discrimination is happening in sentencing.

From the Paper:

"The authors first started by explaining previous research on racial discrimination in sentencing. The issue of warranted and unwarranted disparity was very important to understanding the different approaches to this topic. As discussed in our textbook, African Americans tend to have longer criminal histories and they are charged with more serious crimes. In the article it was explained that most researchers separate warranted disparity, such as a harsher sentence because of a long criminal history, and unwarranted disparity, which can only be explained by race or other extra-legal influences on the sentencing decision (Bushway & Piehl, 2001). The authors state, "there is little evidence of direct racial discrimination once these legal factors are included in the statistical models" (Bushway & Piehl, 2001, p. 734). However, the authors contend that by taking out the warranted cases the discrimination is actually masked because there is disparity in those cases. This is discussed further in their findings."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bushway, S., & Piehl, A. (2001). Judging Judicial Discretion: Legal Factors and Racial Discrimination in Sentencing. Law & Society Review, 35.4, 733 - 764.

More papers on Racial Discrimination in Sentencing:

• Analytical Essay # 122197 : "Racial Disparity in Sentencing"
• Persuasive Essay # 107768 : "Racial Discrimination in the Courts"
• Persuasive Essay # 114618 : "Racial Disparity in Sentencing"

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