WHEN DOES RACE MATTER?

• Published date: 20 December 2000
• Pages: 3-37
• Date: 20 December 2000
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1521-6136(2000)0000002005
• Author: Cassia Spohn,Miriam DeLone

WHEN DOES RACE MATTER? AN

ANALYSIS OF THE CONDITIONS

UNDER WHICH RACE AFFECTS

SENTENCE SEVERITY

Cassia Spohn and Miriam DeLone

ABSTRACT

Research investigating the relationship between offender race/ethnicity

and sentence severity suggests the existence of contextual discrimination.

That is, minority offenders are sentenced more harshly than white

offenders in some jurisdictions, for some types of offenses, and under some

circumstances. The findings of our study confirm this. We compare the

sentences imposed on black, Hispanic and white felony offenders in three

jurisdictions: Cook County (Chicago), Illinois; Dade County (Miami),

Florida; and Jackson County (Kansas City), Missouri. Our results reveal

that offender race/ethnicity has both overt and subtle effects on the

decision to incarcerate or not. Although race had no effect on the

likelihood of incarceration in Kansas City, both blacks and Hispanics

were more likely than whites to be sentenced to prison in Chicago, and

Hispanics (but not blacks) were more likely than whites to be incarcerated

in Miami. Further analysis revealed that offender race interacted

* This manuscript is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant

SBR–93321852. Points of view are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the

position of the National Science Foundation.

Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, Volume 2, pages 3–37.

Copyright © 2000 by Elsevier Science Inc.

All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

ISBN: 0-7623-0680-7

3

(although not always in the predicted way) with other legal and extralegal

predictors of sentence severity.

INTRODUCTION

Nearly half a century after Brown vs The Board of Education, the historic

Supreme Court decision that outlawed racially segregated public schools, the

issue of race relations in the United States continues to evoke controversy and

spark debate. Policymakers at all levels of government struggle to address

contentious issues such as racial gerrymandering, affirmative action, racial

preferences in granting contracts, and multicultural census categories. Politi-

cians encourage Americans to voice their opinions and to offer suggestions for

bridging the gaps between racial minorities and whites. During his second term

in office, for example, President Clinton announced an Initiative on Race

designed to “lead the nation in a great and unprecedented conversation about

race.” In January of 1998 former Senator Bill Bradley and Los Angeles City

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas launched “National Days of Dialogue on

Race Relations” in cities throughout the United States (NY Times, 1997). And

on Internet sites ranging from Oprah Online to America Online’s special site

dedicated to “race relations in black and white” Americans of all political

persuasions plunged into “the foamy churn of debating about race” (NY Times,

1998).

On no issue is the debate more spirited or are opinions more polarized than

the relationship between race, crime, and justice. Politicians and scholars offer

competing explanations for the disproportionate number of blacks arrested,

imprisoned, and on death row. Those on one side contend that the war on crime

– and particularly the war on drugs – has “caused the ever harsher treatment of

blacks by the criminal justice system” (Tonry, 1995: 52) and charge that the

over-representation of blacks in arrest and imprisonment statistics reflects

systematic racial discrimination (Mann, 1993). Those on the other side assert

that these results can be attributed primarily to the disproportionate involve-

ment of blacks in serious criminal activity (Blumstein, 1982, 1993) and argue

that the idea of systematic discrimination within the criminal justice system is

a ‘myth’ (Wilbanks, 1987).

Decades of research examining the treatment of racial minorities at various

stages in the criminal justice process, including well over one hundred studies

exploring the effect of race on sentencing, have not resolved this debate.

Although a number of studies have shown that blacks are treated more harshly

than whites (Holmes et al., 1996; Kramer & Ulmer, 1996; Petersilia, 1983;

Spohn et al., 1981–82; Spohn & Holleran, 2000; Steffensmeier et al., 1998;

4 CASSIA SPOHN & MIRIAM DELONE

Zatz, 1984), others have found either that there are no significant racial

differences (Klein et al., 1990) or that blacks are treated more leniently than

whites (Bernstein et al., 1977; Gibson, 1978; Levin, 1972). Moreover, there are

relatively few studies that examine the treatment of Hispanics, Native

Americans, Asians, or other racial/ethnic groups. Thus, definitive answers to

questions concerning differential treatment of racial/ethnic minorities remain

elusive.

The purpose of this study is not simply to add another voice to the debate

over the existence of racial discrimination within the criminal justice system.

Although we do attempt to determine whether racial minorities are sentenced

more harshly than whites, we believe that this is a theoretically unsophisticated

and incomplete approach to a complex phenomenon. Like Hawkins (1987) and

Zatz (1987), we believe that it is overly simplistic to assume that racial

minorities will receive harsher sentences than whites regardless of the nature of

the crime, the seriousness of the offense, or the culpability of the defendant.

Like Wonders (1996: 617), we believe that the more interesting question is

“When does the particular social characteristic matter – under what

circumstances, for whom, and in interaction with what other factors?” Our

study addresses this question. We use data on black, white, and Hispanic

offenders convicted of felonies in three large urban jurisdictions (Chicago,

Miami, and Kansas City) to test for the direct effect of race/ethnicity on

sentencing and, more importantly, to identify the conditions under which

blacks and Hispanics are sentenced more harshly than whites. In doing so, we

hope to inform the debate on race relations in the United States.

PREVIOUS RESEARCH

Research investigating the relationship between the defendant’s race and

sentence severity has not consistently supported the conflict perspective’s

contention that racial minorities will be sentenced more harshly than whites.

This has led to conflicting conclusions. Some researchers (Hagan, 1974; Kleck,

1981; Pruitt & Wilson, 1983) assert that racial discrimination in sentencing has

declined over time and contend that the predictive power of race, once relevant

legal factors are taken into account, is quite low. Hagan (1974) and Kleck

(1981), for example, have suggested that the direct effect of race on sentence

severity would disappear in models that adequately controlled for the

offender’s prior criminal record. A recent review of 38 studies published since

1975, however, challenges this prediction; Chiricos & Crawford (1995)

reported that many of the studies concluded that race had a direct effect on the

decision to incarcerate or not, and that this effect remained even after the

5When Does Race Matter?