This study used a pooled-time series design to examine the interplay between State incarceration rates, determinate sentencing, and the size of the African-American population between 1978 and 2004.
Consistent with prior research, findings show that larger Black populations are associated with higher incarceration rates, but that this association has weakened over time. Results also indicate that determinate sentencing is associated with lower imprisonment rates. The interaction between a higher proportion of African-American residents and determinate sentencing, however, is associated with higher incarceration rates, suggesting that in States with greater minority presence the abolition of discretionary parole amplifies the impact of punitive responses linked to racial threat. The authors argue that this unintended effect reflects the fact that formal constraints on release decisionmaking reduce the ability of justice systems to administer greater punishments to specific subpopulations. (Publisher abstract modified)
Downloads
Similar Publications
- Women's Pathways to Crime: A Heuristic Typology of Offenders
- Post-traumatic stress disorder moderates the relation between documented childhood victimization and pain 30 years later
- Pure financial exploitation vs. Hybrid financial exploitation co-occurring with physical abuse and/or neglect of elderly persons.