Citation

Sellin T. Am. J. Sociol. 1935; 41(2): 212-217.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1935, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/217058

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

It would be denying to the judge the ordinary attributes of human nature to assume that he could render justice free from all preconceptions. The marked influence of race and nationality prejudice in the administration of justice is revealed through a study of the average length of sentences, definite and indeterminate, of foreign born, Negro, and white male prisoners received from courts in 1931 and committed to state and federal prisons and reformatories for adults in the United States. The great and relatively constant variations observed must be largely attributed to the human equation in judicial administration and as evidence that equality before the law is a social fiction.