Racial Disparities in Criminal Sentencing Vary Considerably across Federal Judges

Abstract

Substantial race-based disparities exist in federal criminal sentencing. We analyze 380,000 recent (2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019) sentences in the JUSTFAIR database and show that these disparities are large and vary considerably across judges. Judges assign white defendants sentences 13% shorter than Black defendants' and 19% shorter than Hispanic defendants', on average, conditional on case characteristics and district.Judges one standard deviation above average in their estimated Black-white disparity give Black defendants sentences 39% conditionally longer than white defendants', vis-à-vis an average disparity of 13%. Judges one standard deviation above average in their estimated Hispanic-white disparity give Hispanic defendants