Abstract

Drawing on the minority threat perspective, this study assesses the main and interactive effects of racial/ethnic segregation on the incarceration and sentence length decisions. Using the State Court Processing Statistics in combination with other data, we employ multilevel models to examine (1) whether racial/ethnic segregation affects sentencing severity, (2) whether racial/ethnic segregation moderates the effects of racial/ethnic composition, and (3) whether racial/ethnic segregation reduces racial/ethnic disparity in punitive sentencing. Both racial and ethnic segregation displayed mitigating effects on punishment severity. In particular, racial segregation reduced the effect of racial composition on probabilities of receiving a prison term, and ethnic segregation reduced the effect of ethnic composition on probabilities of receiving a jail sentence. Our results suggest that the minority threat perspective and its theoretical accounts of segregation can be partially applied to sentencing outcomes in state courts.

摘要

本研究借鉴少数族裔威胁的观点，评估种族/族裔隔离对监禁和刑期决定的主要和互动影响。使用州法院处理统计数据与其他数据相结合，我们采用多层次模型来检验 (1) 种族/民族隔离是否会影响量刑严重程度，(2) 种族/民族隔离是否会缓和种族/民族构成的影响，以及 (3) ) 种族/族裔隔离是否会减少惩罚性量刑中的种族/族裔差异。种族和民族隔离对惩罚的严重程度都有减轻作用。特别是，种族隔离降低了种族构成对入狱概率的影响，种族隔离降低了种族构成对入狱概率的影响。我们的研究结果表明，少数族裔威胁观点及其对隔离的理论解释可以部分应用于州法院的判决结果。