TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2010//
TI  - Modeling the Politics of Punishment: A Contextual Analysis of Racial Disparity in Drug Sentencing
JO  - Criminal justice review
A1  - Helms, Ronald
A1  - Costanza, S.E.
SP  - 472
EP  - 491
VL  - 35
IS  - 4
N2  - This study uses Tobit to assess contextual punishment determinants for a large sample of felony drug cases that reached final disposition in 1990. After statistically holding constant ascribed and legal variables, the authors find that punishments for African American defendants in drug-related cases varied by social and political context. African American defendants adjudicated in jurisdictions characterized by a large Black population received reduced punishments; but in jurisdictions that were characterized by strong law-and-order political support, Black defendants received longer sentences. After introducing these interactions, Blacks faced on average reduced penalties for drug crimes. Blacks were the recipients of adjusted sentencing but not in the uniformly harsh direction proposed by much of the sentencing research. In sum, the results of this research add to the growing literature documenting the political foundations of punishment patterns in the U.S. criminal courts.<p />
LA  - 
SN  - 0734-0168
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0734016810373114
ID  - ref1
ER  -