The trial tax and the intersection of race/ethnicity, gender, and age in criminal court sentencing.

IF 2.4 2区社会学 Q1 LAW

Law and Human Behavior Pub Date : 2023-02-01 DOI:10.1037/lhb0000514

Peter S Lehmann

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objective: Prior research consistently demonstrates that defendants convicted at trial are sentenced more harshly than those who plead guilty. Additionally, a vast literature has shown that Black and Hispanic defendants, and especially young minority males, are particularly disadvantaged in sentencing, though these effects may be conditional on various legal and case-processing factors. However, it remains unclear how the mode of conviction might moderate these inequalities according to offenders' combined race/ethnicity, gender, and age.

Hypotheses: I expected that mode of conviction would moderate the joint effects of race/ethnicity, gender, and age on the imposition of a sentence to prison and on sentence length such that young minority males convicted at trial would receive more severe punishments than members of other subgroups.

Method: The analyses made use of data on defendants sentenced for noncapital felony crimes in Florida circuit courts over a 12-year period (N = 1,076,500). Hurdle regression models and marginal effects analysis were used.

Results: Greater sentencing disparities in absolute as well as relative terms between young minority males and other race/ethnicity, gender, and age subgroups were found among trial cases than among plea cases. Further, Black and Hispanic males were subjected to trial taxes that were substantially larger than those of other subgroups.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that defendants who plead guilty are generally sentenced according to predictable and standardized "going rates" of punishment, whereas the enhanced discretion afforded judges in trial cases as well as racialized "bad facts" about defendants that emerge at trial may drive inequalities in punishment. Thus, extralegal sentencing disparities tied to mode of conviction are an area in which criminal justice reform efforts might be directed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

查看原文本刊更多论文

审判税与刑事法庭判决中种族/民族、性别和年龄的交集。

目的:先前的研究一致表明，在审判中被定罪的被告比认罪的被告判刑更严厉。此外，大量文献表明，黑人和西班牙裔被告，尤其是年轻的少数族裔男性，在判决中尤其处于不利地位，尽管这些影响可能取决于各种法律和案件处理因素。然而，目前尚不清楚定罪模式如何根据罪犯的种族/民族、性别和年龄来缓和这些不平等。假设:我期望这种定罪模式会缓和种族/民族、性别和年龄对判刑和刑期的共同影响，这样在审判中被定罪的年轻少数族裔男性会比其他子群体的成员受到更严厉的惩罚。方法:分析使用了佛罗里达州巡回法院12年来因非死刑重罪被判刑的被告的数据(N = 1,076,500)。采用障碍回归模型和边际效应分析。结果:与认罪案件相比，在审判案件中，年轻少数族裔男性与其他种族/民族、性别和年龄亚组之间的判刑差异在绝对和相对方面都更大。此外，黑人和西班牙裔男性受到的试验税比其他亚组要大得多。结论:这些发现表明，认罪的被告通常是根据可预测和标准化的“现行刑罚率”被判刑的，而审判案件中法官的自由裁量权的增强以及审判中出现的关于被告的种族化“坏事实”可能会导致惩罚的不平等。因此，与定罪方式有关的法外量刑差异可能是刑事司法改革努力的一个方向。(PsycInfo数据库记录(c) 2023 APA，版权所有)。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Law and Human Behavior Multiple-

CiteScore

4.50

自引率

8.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Law and Human Behavior, the official journal of the American Psychology-Law Society/Division 41 of the American Psychological Association, is a multidisciplinary forum for the publication of articles and discussions of issues arising out of the relationships between human behavior and the law, our legal system, and the legal process. This journal publishes original research, reviews of past research, and theoretical studies from professionals in criminal justice, law, psychology, sociology, psychiatry, political science, education, communication, and other areas germane to the field.