Doctoral Dissertation Research: Sentencing reforms as anti-discrimination policy

Princeton University, Princeton NJ

Investigators

Abstract

Determinate sentencing polices were adopted, in part, in response to critiques that linked discretion to discrimination and advocated for determinate 'colorblind' policies to replace the indeterminate sentences of the time; as such, these policies are anti-discrimination measures. This dissertation will examine the strengths and limitations of colorblind anti-discrimination policies by analyzing the relationships between the adoption of determinate sentencing policies and changes and continuities in the size and composition of the incarcerated population. Research questions exploring this relationship will be answered by analyzing primary and secondary datasets containing information on punishment outcomes, sentencing, and a variety of state level variables and characteristics of individual offenders. The analysis will use data from all 50 states, will examine the period from 1980 to 2000, and will consist of three research designs. First, pooled cross-sectional time-series analysis will be used to measure the effects of these reforms on incarceration rates, admission rates, and time-served, as well as racial, ethnic, and gender disparity in these measures. Next, an individual level longitudinal design will be employed to access the effects of sentencing reforms on changes in time-served and the impact of extra-legal characteristics on time-served. These first two analyses will be limited to the six states for which I have collected extensive data on sentencing reform legislation. Finally, an individual level longitudinal design will be used to access the effects of truth in sentencing, parole abolition, and the adoption of sentencing guidelines on time-served and the effect of extra-legal characteristics on time-served. While group-membership based disparities in punishment outcomes are a social reality with a long history in the US, the prison boom of the last quarter century has increased the impact of these disparities. As such, it is increasingly urgent that we understand the effects of policies adopted as remedies The broader impacts of this research include the following: Because the proposed analyses address the ways in which definitions of discrimination shape policy and thus direct policy outcomes, the findings of this study will help policymakers design more informed and effective anti-discrimination policies. Although researchers and policy makers often assume a causal relationship between sentencing reforms and changes and continuities in the demographics of imprisonment, we currently have no comprehensive empirical assessment of the effects of these policies. This study will provide an empirical test for assumptions under which many criminal justice policy makers currently operate.