Class And Race Disparities Among Sentencing - amazonia.fiocruz.br

Class And Race Disparities Among Sentencing Video

Racial Inequality in the Criminal Justice System Class And Race Disparities Among Sentencing.

Class And Race Disparities Among Sentencing - that interfere

While some studies find that the effect of conviction on wages varies across the life course with little to no negative effect on the job market performance or wage potential of young offenders, researchers who have addressed racial disparities in their analysis find that incarceration interrupts the long-term process of transition into stable employment and earnings growth more significantly for African American men than other groups. Research from sociologists Bruce Western and Becky Pettit finds that incarceration factors prominently in low labor force participation and wage rates of African American men when compared to their white counterparts. Further, racial disparities in the criminal justice system amplify already existing racial gaps in earnings. Employment exclusion is also high on the list of costs associated with former incarceration. Several professions--such as those requiring interaction with children, certain health care services, real estate, and most law enforcement and security professions--are subject to state and federal guidelines that restrict employment opportunities for ex-inmates with felony convictions. For jobseekers holding certain kinds of criminal records, federal laws also restrict employment in airport security, armored car crews, and jobs involving the administration of employee benefit plans. The Legal Action Center produced a report card of state policies and laws creating legal barriers to individuals with criminal records in , and followed up in The study found that most states have laws that restrict the employment and occupational licensing opportunities including professions such as plumbing and cosmetology of individuals who have criminal records--including arrests that did not lead to convictions. Employers also limit the range of labor market options for ex-inmates. Citing concerns of safety, trust, and legal liability, employers are less likely to hire job seekers with criminal records than other groups of disadvantaged workers.

View sample criminal justice research paper on sentencing disparity. Browse criminal justice research paper topics for more inspiration. If you need a thorough research paper written according to all the academic standards, you can always turn to our experienced writers for help. This is how your paper can get an A! Feel free to contact our writing service for professional Diaparities. We offer high-quality assignments for reasonable rates. Critics of the sentencing process contend that unrestrained discretion results in sentencing disparity. They contend that judges who are not bound by sentencing rules or guidelines, but who are free to fashion sentences as they deem appropriate, often impose different sentences Class And Race Disparities Among Sentencing similarly situated offenders or identical sentences on offenders whose crimes and characteristics are substantially different.

Although these terms are sometimes used interchangeably, they are significantly different.

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Disparity refers to a difference in treatment or outcome, but one that does not necessarily result from intentional bias or prejudice. Discrimination, on the other hand, is a difference that results from differential treatment based on illegitimate criteria, such as race, gender, social class, or sexual orientation. With respect to sentencing, discrimination exists when illegitimate or legally irrelevant defendant characteristics affect the sentence that is imposed after all legally relevant variables are taken into consideration. It exists when black and Hispanic offenders are sentenced more harshly than similarly situated white offenders or when male offenders receive more punitive sentences than identical female offenders. Sentencing disparities reveal both intra- and inter-jurisdictional differences. If, for example, some judges routinely send all armed robbers https://amazonia.fiocruz.br/scdp/blog/woman-in-black-character-quotes/strangers-on-the-land-of-paradise-by.php no previous felony Amlng to prison while others typically sentence all such offenders to probation, Class And Race Disparities Among Sentencing result would be intra-jurisdictional sentencing disparity.

Effects of Structural Racism

A similar outcome would result if some judges routinely hand out either substantially harsher or substantially more lenient sentences than their colleagues on the bench. In both cases, the DDisparities of the sentence the offender gets rests in part on the judge who imposes it.

The sentencing patterns of judges aRce different jurisdictions also may vary. Certain categories of crimes may be viewed as more serious, and certain types of offenders perceived as more dangerous, in some jurisdictions than in others. For example, offenders convicted of serious felonies may be sentenced more leniently in large urban court systems, where such crimes are fairly common, than in rural areas, where misdemeanors and less serious felonies dominate the court docket.

Similarly, blacks who victimize whites may be sentenced more harshly than other categories of offenders in southern jurisdictions, no differently than other offenders in non-southern jurisdictions. These geographic or regional variations in sentence outcomes signal interjurisdictional disparity. The harsher sentences imposed on black offenders in southern jurisdictions also may be indicative of racial discrimination Class And Race Disparities Among Sentencing sentencing.

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A https://amazonia.fiocruz.br/scdp/blog/work-experience-programme/differences-between-radical-and-non-radical-islam.php type of sentence disparity is intrajudge disparity. This type of disparity occurs Amog an individual judge makes inconsistent sentencing decisions; that is, he or she imposes different sentences on equally culpable offenders whose crimes are indistinguishable. Although Class And Race Disparities Among Sentencing sentence variations might be attributable to subtle, and thus not easily observed or measured, differences in crime seriousness and offender blameworthiness, they also might be due to intentional bias on the part of the judge.

An individual judge who believes that black and Hispanic offenders are particularly dangerous and especially likely to recidivate may impose harsher sentences on these types of offenders than on otherwise identical white offenders. These types of intra-judge sentencing disparities, then, may signal the presence of discrimination based on race, gender, social class, or other legally irrelevant defendant characteristics. Not all sentencing disparities are unwarranted.

Types of Sentencing Disparity

Although one might question the fairness of a system in which the sentence an offender receives depends upon the jurisdiction where the case is adjudicated, jurisdictional differences in values and in attitudes toward crime and punishment might foster sentencing disparity. Variations in laws and in criminal justice resources might have a similar effect.

In one state, for example, the presumptive sentence for burglary might be five to seven years, while in another state the range might Class And Race Disparities Among Sentencing from seven to ten years. The fact that an offender convicted of burglary in the first state received five years, while a seemingly identical offender convicted of burglary in the second state got seven years, is not indicative of unwarranted disparity. In each instance, the judge imposing the sentence The Black that the offender deserved the minimum punishment specified for the particular crime. Within-state sentencing disparities also are to be expected. Judges, many of whom are elected or appointed by the governor or some other public official, share at least to some degree the values and attitudes of the communities in which they serve.

The fact that sentences for minor drug offenses are harsher in some jurisdictions than in others may simply reflect the fact that different communities and thus the judges on the bench in those communities have differing beliefs about the appropriate https://amazonia.fiocruz.br/scdp/blog/story-in-italian/hipaa-compliant-mobile-app-development-requirements.php for this type of crime. Principled and thoughtful judges sitting in different jurisdictions, in other words, might come to different conclusions about the appropriate punishment for identical offenders.

The legitimacy of intra-jurisdictional sentencing disparities is more questionable.]