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Federal Sentencing: An Argumentative Analysis

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From 1990 to 2010, the percentage of foreign-born individuals in the United States population has skyrocketed from 7.9% or (19,767,316 individuals) to 12.9% of the population (or 39,955,854 individuals), and has received attention from researchers seeking to examine the link between immigration and decisions made by government representatives and officials (Wu and D’Angelo, 2014, p. 58). In the article “Unwarranted Disparity in Federal Sentencing: Noncitizen Crime as a Social/Group Threat”, Jawjeong Wu and Jill M. D’Angelo broadened the scope of this field by being the first researchers to look into citizenship as a factor using multilevel analysis (Wu and D’Angelo, 2014, p. 59). In their study, Wu and D’Angelo (2014) found that cross-level …show more content…

58). To this end, the article outlined six hypotheses to be tested. Hypothesis one postulated that among different federal district courts, sentence length would vary remarkably (Wu and D’Angelo, 2014). The second hypothesis proposed that citizen offenders would receive longer prison terms in their sentences (Wu and D’Angelo, 2014). Additionally, their third hypothesis conjectured that large non-citizen populations would correlate with lengthier prison terms for all offenders, regardless of citizenship status (Wu and D’Angelo, 2014). Following up on the third hypothesis, hypothesis four stated that federal districts with a large non-citizen population would result in longer prison terms for non-citizen offenders than districts with a much smaller non-citizen population (Wu and D’Angelo, 2014). Within the fifth hypothesis, it was suggested that prison sentences would lengthen based on four components: large racial or ethnic minorities, high crime rates, light caseload, and low average personal income (Wu and D’Angelo, 2014). The sixth and final hypothesis postulated that the outcome of hypothesis three would

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Matt Taibbi’s “The Divide” uses extensive research to attempt to contradict the understanding of our nonpartisan justice system. According to Taibbi, while poverty has increased, crime has decreased, and the jail population has increased 600% since 1991 (page xvi). He states while individuals are being prosecuted based on race and financial status. In which Taibbi argues that other offenders are not being prosecuted compared to minority groups.

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However, a multivariate time series study of violent crime in California over the last fifty years indicated that decreased unemployment rates and alcohol consumption had an important impact on the drop in violent crime rates. There was no evidence to support that the Three Strikes Law had an impact in deterring violent crime (Parker, 2012). However, a comparison study conducted in 2007 measured the impact of the Three Strikes Law in regards to the likelihood of former inmates to be rearrested within the first three years of their release. The first group had been convicted of two strike offenses and the second group had been convicted of one strike offense in addition to one lesser offense. The findings concluded that the first group was seventeen percent less likely to be rearrested than the second group (Fischman,

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Coker gives great evidence that supports racial injustice in the criminal justice system. She discusses on the Supreme Court’s rulings and accusations of racial preference in the system. This article is helpful because it supports my thesis on race playing a role on the system of criminal justice. Hurwitz, J., & Peffley, M. (1997). Public perceptions of race and crime: The role of racial stereotypes.

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Discrimination and racial disparities exist at every phase of the U.S. criminal justice system, especially when it comes to sentencing. The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, as there are over 2 million people imprisoned today. The drawing is a visual representation of my annotated bibliography. In it, I stated that the criminal justice system is broken, as it discriminates against people of color. The left side of the illustration depicts the scene of the courtroom during the trial of a white defendant.

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In this article, the authors examine the research of how the criminal justice system forms racial profiling in the United States as incarceration increases. The authors use longitudinal data to find information of how one’s skin color can affect one’s punishments compared to someone who is white due to the stereotypes that revolve around their race. As they further investigate they found that “there is a stereotypical link between race and crime” (Saperstein et al., 2014) as arrest and the consequences associated with the crime are increased to people who are minorities. The article strongly suggests an extensive impact on increased policing and rise of incarceration on racialization and stereotyping with results of groups, police judgments

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Disparities in the criminal justice system are in part a function of the interrelationship between race and class and reflect the disadvantages faced by low-income defendants. This can be seen most prominently in regard to the quality of defense

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These offenders are older, have a high diploma or GED, are employed and graduate from the various types of programs. The second theory was based on racial discrimination outcomes in drug court. The Caucasian population have a better outcome in drug

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Defined as a public policy that imposes an outlined amount of prison time based on the crime committed and the defendant’s criminal history, these sentences dictate that a judge must enact a statutory fixed penalty on individuals convicted of certain crimes, regardless of extenuating circumstances. Such laws have removed discretionary sentencing power from judges, instead focusing on severe punishments in line with national drug and crime concerns. While the original goal of mandatory minimum sentences was to deter potential criminals, reduce drug use, control judicial prudence, the policy has had extreme consequences such as sentencing imbalances and

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The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for several reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. This literature review will discuss the ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system and how mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism has become a problem.

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How Sentencing Affects the State and Federal Prison Systems The United States

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In addition to greatly affecting the otherwise unlikely citizens of America, Tough on Crime policies have greatly affected minority groups in America; perhaps more so than of any other group of citizens. To begin, from the 1980 on through the year 1995, the incarceration rates among drug offenders increased by more than 1000 percent. Notably, by the year 1995 one out of every four inmates in any given correctional facility was a drug offender. In addition of that 1000 percent increase, drug offenders accounted for more than 80 percent of the total growth in the federal inmate population and 50 percent of the growth of the state prison population from 1985 to 1995 (Stith, web). In addition, once in the system, the probability of receiving harsher

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Women convicted of “other property offenses” – a category of crimes that includes arson, receiving stolen property and breaking and entering — received shorter prison sentences. • Black female defendants were, in some ways, treated differently than white female defendants. Black women were assigned higher bond amounts and were more likely to be sent to prison than white women. Women of both races were equally likely to be released prior to

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Along with African-American/Blacks, the Hispanic population is underrepresented at both the state and federal levels while the Caucasian/White population are underrepresented (Walker, Spohn, & DeLone, 2018). This essay will discuss multiple different races and ethinicities to regard their population make up within the prison system. Although race and ethnicity relate to one another they are different. According to Walker et al. (2018), race is defined as the, “major biological divisions of mankind,” for

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An African-American individual is 0.356\% less likely to be arrested given the type of crime committed relative to other races. When precinct-level fixed effects are included in the regression, the sign of the coefficient changes from negative to positive, this is the same as Table 2. When the regression also conditions for precincts, an African-American individual is between 0.265\% and 0.294\% more likely to be arrested conditional on being stopped and on the type of crime committed. All six specifications of the regression adjusted for crime are insignificant, therefore the race of the individual does not statistically influence the likelihood of being arrested when conditioned for the type of crime committed. This result follows Persico (2013) where African-American individuals are 0.495\% less likely to be arrested given the type of crime committed relative to other races and when precincts effects are included, between 0.228\% and 0.234\% more likely to be arrested given the type of crime committed relative to other races.

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It is commonly known that the our constitution and the amendments thereof, were enacted by our forefathers with the intentions to provide the American citizen with certain protections and guaranteed rights. However, in these contemporary times, there has been much public controversy with our judicial system as to whether or not that some juveniles who commit a crime are being treated differently than others who commit the same crime (Hawkins, Laub, Lauritsen, & Cothern, 2000, p. 2). Whereas, the American Sociological Association [ASA], (2007), article suggests that the differences of treatment and/or punishment imposed by the judicial system is discriminatory in nature (p.1). Furthermore, according to research conducted Sampson & Lauritsen,

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