1982/01/01 by Cassia Spohn, John Gruhl, Susan Welch · 189 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Crime Patterns and Interventions #Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis #Criminology #Gender studies #Law #Political science #Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending #Race (biology) #Sociology
paper · doi:10.2307/3053550
published in Law & Society Review 16(1), 71-88 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 1982/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Although the possible effect of race on sentencing decisions is a much-studied question, even recent studies suffer from methodological problems. This paper attempts to correct these problems by using a large number of cases and a large number of offenses, by dividing the sentencing decision into two separate decisions, by using an appropriate scale to measure sentence severity, by including controls for relevant legal and extra-legal factors, and by using multivariate analysis. Our major findings are that race does not have a direct effect on sentence severity, but that blacks are more likely than whites to be incarcerated.