NCJ Number
228099
Journal
The Prison Journal Volume: 89 Issue: 3 Dated: September 2009 Pages: 309-327
Date Published
September 2009
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This study examined whether Blacks and Hispanic defendants were more likely to recidivate than Whites, controlling for legal factors.
Abstract
The multivariate analyses show evidence of the continued disadvantage Blacks and Hispanics face in the criminal justice system. Data indicate Blacks are more likely than Whites and Hispanics to be rearrested, reconvicted, and resentenced to prison. Blacks and Hispanics pose higher recidivism risks than do Whites. Black and Hispanic offenders are more likely than White offenders to be rearrested and resentenced to prison. Hispanics, however, are no more likely than Whites to be reconvicted, indicating that some proportion of the re-arrests of Hispanics may be unfounded. Although several sentencing studies have found that Hispanics are subjected to harsher punishments, few studies have examined recidivism among Hispanic releases. This article addresses the issue of recidivism to ascertain whether the likelihood of re-arrest is greater for Hispanics than for Whites. The results indicate that such disparity exists and more research is necessary and should include a breakdown of Hispanics by national origin and time to recidivism by race/ethnicity. Data were collected from a database created by the U.S. Department of Justice, which contains information on 142,095 sampled prisoners released from prisons in 15 States in 1994. Tables and references