Race, Ethnicity, Threat and the Labeling of Convicted Felons

• NCJ Number: 211126
• Journal: Criminology Volume: 43 Issue: 3 Dated: August 2005 Pages: 589-622
• Author(s): Stephanie Bontrager; William Bales; Ted Chiricos
• Date Published: August 2005
• Length: 34 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research); Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the effects of race and Hispanic ethnicity on the withholding of adjudication under Florida law for 91,477 male felons sentenced to probation between 1999 and 2002.

Abstract

Florida law permits judges to withhold adjudication of guilt for persons who have either pled guilty or been found guilty of a felony, which allows them to retain all civil rights and to truthfully state they have not been convicted of a felony. This provision may be applied only to persons sentenced to probation. In addition to testing for the direct effects of race and ethnicity on judicial withholding of guilt, the study used Hierarchical Linear Modeling to examine the possibility that the effects of race and ethnicity were contextualized by characteristics of sentencing counties. These characteristics included racial and ethnic composition, violent and property crime rates, drug arrest rates, and a measure of concentrated economic and social disadvantage. Black defendants were significantly less likely than Whites to have adjudication withheld when individual-level predictors were controlled. This race effect was found for all crime types, but it was strongest for drug offenses. When county contextual variables were also controlled, the direct effect of race on the withholding of adjudication was significant for each crime type but was again strongest for drug offenses. Hispanic defendants had significant, but modestly lower odds of having adjudication withheld when individual-level variables were controlled, and this effect held for both violent and drug offenses. When county-level factors were also controlled, Hispanics had statistically significant but modestly reduced odds of having adjudication withheld, but this was only found for drug crimes. Cross-level interactions found that concentrated disadvantage substantially reduced the chances that both Blacks and Hispanics would have guilt withheld. 4 tables, 1 figure, and 70 references