The Power to Punish: Discretion and Sentencing Reform in the War on Drugs

Engen, Rodney L.; Steen, Sara

doi:10.1086/210433

Cited by 114 publications

(127 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…However, budget allocation and lethal sentencing, which are commonly the topic of political campaigning, may be subjected to greater public influence. Notwithstanding this argument, all punishment is political [50,51], and given prior findings about the hydraulic effect of punishment practices [52], understanding where racialized threat may be more directly operating is crucial to elucidating the causes of differential treatment. Consequently, despite the significant amount of research on racial threat theory, additional research is needed to explain how racialized threat influences state-sanctioned control practices.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Racial Threat Theory: Assessing the Evidence, Requesting Redesign

Dollar

2014

Journal of Criminology

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Racial threat theory was developed as a way to explain how population composition influences discriminatory social control practices and has become one of the most acknowledged frameworks for explaining racial disparity in criminal justice outcomes. This paper provides a thorough review of racial threat theory and empirical assessments of the theory and demonstrates that while scholars often cite inconsistent support for the theory, empirical discrepancies may be due to insufficient attention to the conceptual complexity of racial threat. I organize and present the following review around 4 forms of state-sanctioned control mechanisms: police expenditures, arrests, sentencing, and capital punishment. Arguing that the pervasiveness of racialization in state controls warrants continued inquiry, I provide suggestions for future scholarship that will help us develop enhanced understanding of how racial threat may be operating.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Racial Threat Theory: Assessing the Evidence, Requesting Redesign

Dollar

2014

Journal of Criminology

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“…While some find that black drug offenders are sentenced more severely than whites (Albonetti 1997;Brennan and Spohn 2008;Demuth and Steffensmeier 2004;Rodriguez et al 2006;Steen et al 2005), others find that sentencing outcomes do not differ between similarly situated black and white drug offenders (Chiricos and Bales 1991;Curry and CorralCamacho 2008;Engen and Steen 2000;Spohn 1999). In addition, our finding of no differences in sentence length between similarly situated white and Hispanic offenders is consistent with some of the extant research (Curry and Corral-Camacho 2008;Lagan 1996;McDonald and Carlson 1993;Spohn 1999), although it is at odds with findings reported in other studies (see for example, Albonetti 1997;Brennan and Spohn 2008;Demuth and Steffensmeier 2004;Rodriguez et al 2006;Demuth 2000, 2001).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some researchers find that black drug offenders are sentenced more severely than whites (see for example Albonetti 1997;Brennan and Spohn 2008;Demuth and Steffensmeier 2004;Rodriguez et al 2006;Steen et al 2005;Demuth 2000, 2001;Unnever 1982;Unnever and Hembroff 1988). However, other researchers find that sentencing outcomes do not differ between similarly situated black and white drug offenders (see for example, Chiricos and Bales 1991;Curry and Corral-Camacho 2008;Engen and Steen 2000;McDonald and Carlson 1993;Spohn 1999). With regard to white-versus-Hispanic differences, some find more lenient sentencing outcomes for whites (see for example , Albonetti 1997;Brennan and Spohn 2008;Demuth and Steffensmeier 2004;Rodriguez et al 2006;Demuth 2000, 2001), but others find that Hispanic and white drug offenders are treated similarly (see for example Curry and Corral-Camacho 2008;Lagan 1996;McDonald and Carlson 1993;Spohn 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Joint Effects of Offender Race/Ethnicity and Sex on Sentence Length Decisions in Federal Courts

Brennan

Spohn

2009

Race Soc Probl

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The current study examined the main and interactive effects of offender race/ethnicity and sex on sentence length decisions for drug offenders convicted in three federal courts located in Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska. The additive model showed that females received shorter prison sentences than similarly situated male offenders, but there were no differences between white offenders and minority offenders. However, when the data were partitioned by sex, black males were found to receive lengthier prison terms than white males. There were no differences between white males and Hispanic males, and white females were treated no differently than either black or Hispanic females. Moreover, when the data were partitioned by race/ethnicity, white females were treated no differently than white males. However, black females received shorter sentences than black males and Hispanic females received shorter sentences than Hispanic males. Further analyses showed that black and Hispanic males also received longer sentences than white females and that black males received longer sentences than all other offenders (with the exception of Hispanic male offenders). These findings mesh with those gleaned from other sentencing studies, although they are at odds with theoretical notions that leniency at the sentencing stage is reserved only for white women.

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“…States at the 25th percentile sent about 1 % fewer new commitments to prison. This finding was not unexpected given the effect the war on drugs had and continues to have on imprisonment in the U.S. (Engen & Steen, 2000). Of the remaining control variables, both percent Black and percent Hispanic significantly increased new commitments, suggesting that higher percentages of people of color led to higher growth in new commitments.…”

Section: Interaction Termsmentioning

confidence: 79%

Opening the Door for More: Assessing the Impact of Sentencing Reforms on Commitments to Prison Over Time

Harmon

2015

Am J Crim Just

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Since the early 1970s, U.S. states have adopted a series of sentencing reforms that have substantially altered sentencing and release policies by limiting discretion of judges, parole boards, and/or prison administrators. The current study assesses shifts in year-to-year changes in new commitments and parolees returned to prison within all 50 states from the years 1972 to 2008. The study tests the theory that sentencing reforms resulted in increased commitments to prison due to changes in the structures of sentencing and not due to increased crime. Data was analyzed using panel regression with robust standard errors, fixed effects, and conditional change scores. By treating six main sentencing reforms as dynamically interacting, the results suggest that certain combinations of sentencing reforms significantly increase new commitments while the number of parolees returned to prison was not meaningfully affected. The analysis further indicates that the combinations that the reforms appear in at the statelevel influence the magnitude of the impacts of reforms.

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The Power to Punish: Discretion and Sentencing Reform in the War on Drugs

Cited by 114 publications

References 22 publications

Racial Threat Theory: Assessing the Evidence, Requesting Redesign

Racial Threat Theory: Assessing the Evidence, Requesting Redesign

The Joint Effects of Offender Race/Ethnicity and Sex on Sentence Length Decisions in Federal Courts

Opening the Door for More: Assessing the Impact of Sentencing Reforms on Commitments to Prison Over Time

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