A comparative look of sentencing outcomes based on the defendant's country of citizenship

In the wake of negative stereotypes of immigrants from lower status countries, this study used federal sentencing data for 2015 to examine the effects of the defendant’s country of citizenship on sentence outcomes. Although the United States Sentencing Commission has long stipulated that national origin isn’t a relevant factor in determining sentence, a growing body of sentencing research has found evidence that a defendant’s country of citizenship continues to influence sentence outcome. Findings of the current study revealed partial support that national origins do matter. Specifically, after controlling for a number of legally relevant, case processing and extralegal factors, defendants from Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and Middle-East/North Africa were found to receive more favorable sentences than those given to their Mexican counterparts. However, a second model that compared the Mexican region to all other regions failed to reach statistical significance. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author dc:creator

• Ridley, Whitney

Contributors dc:contributor

• Iles, Gale D.
• Bumphus, Vic; McGuffee, Karen
• College of Arts and Sciences

• Crime and race -- United States
• Criminal justice, Administration of -- United States
• Discrimination in criminal justice administration -- United States

Licence

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/545

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1712