Analyzing Variation in Prior Record Penalties Across Conviction Offenses

Abstract

The focal concerns perspective suggests that criminal history and the nature of the offense interact to influence judicial assessments of community threat, yet this question has not been subject to systematic empirical examination. Drawing on 4 years of data (2007-2010) from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing ( N = 75,676), we utilize linear quantile mixed models (LQMM) to examine the impact of prior record on the conditional distribution of sentence lengths across violent, property, drug, and sex offenders, controlling for the effects of important individual and judicial district-level covariates. The results indicate that prior record penalties differ both between and within conviction offense types across the conditional sentence length distribution. Substantive, theoretical, and methodological implications are discussed.

Contextual Influences on the Sentencing of Individuals Convicted of Sexual Crimes

“…Overall, this research contributes to the literature on societal and criminal justice responses to persons convicted of sexual crimes, observing that contextual factors indicative of both the focal concerns and populist punitiveness perspectives have differential effects when individuals convicted of sexual crimes are the subject of judicial discretion. That is, rather than judges drawing on a particular set of explanatory factors when sentencing aggregate groups, our findings are consistent with certain groups conditioning the effects of covariates operating at both the individual and contextual levels (Cassidy & Rydberg, 2018; Lin et al, 2012; Ulmer, 2012). The specific contextual effects on sentencing for persons convicted of sexual crimes that were observed here are consistent with the notion that judges consider these individuals as distinct risks necessitating special decision making (Bumby & Maddox, 1999), for instance, enhancing penalties in small court contexts and reducing the salience of caseload pressure in the incarceration decision.…”

Does Sentence Type and Length Matter? Interactions of Age, Race, Ethnicity, and Gender on Jail and Prison Sentences

“…The substantive utility of quantile regression is the capability to identify patterns of variation in sentencing disparity as one moves from relatively short to relatively long sentences (Britt, 2009). Although prior research shows punishment disparities are more often found in incarceration decisions than sentence length decisions (Chiricos & Crawford, 1995; Spohn, 2000; Wang, Mears, Spohn, & Dario, 2013), our findings indicate that quantile regression is capable of uncovering additional disparity that may be obscured via more traditional methods of examining sentence length outcomes (see also Cassidy & Rydberg, 2018; Rydberg, Cassidy, & Socia, 2018). Most importantly, to advance theoretical development and provide context to empirical findings, more qualitative research is needed to better understand the ways in which judges think about sentencing decisions.…”

Sentencing Add-Ons and Implications for Disparities in a Guidelines State

“…2 Our analyses focus on first-time felony convictions (N = 1,014,646). This focus was strategic because it limited the influence of unobserved confounders on sentencing and add-ons decisions that can be introduced by defendants who have lengthy prior records or regularly cycle through the local court system (see, generally, Cassidy & Rydberg, 2018;Crow, 2008). Excluding defendants with prior felony records arguably allows for more accurate estimates of race, ethnicity, and add-on effects.…”