APPLICATION: Mandatory minimums, which were put into effect, were thought to be able to stop the racial disparity in sentencing from individual to individual. Forcing law enforcement to abide by those minimums was thought that these sentences would therefore even out the rates of incarceration of minorities. (Federal Mandatory Minimums, 2012) However, the uneven use of laws for crack versus cocaine allowed for an increase, not a decrease of minorities being sentences to mandatory minimums for crack, which is found in lower socio-economic status (SES) areas over cocaine, which is found in Higher SES areas. However, the racial disparity accounts for the lack of allowance of minorities to plead to lesser offenses to avoid the mandatory minimums while white affluent Americans are more likely to be given the option to plead to a lesser offense. This research supports my research in so much as it provides an avenue of information that clearly lays out the disparities, how they are impacting the sentencing and specifically which groups are most affected (Black and Hispanic) by race. The research indicates that minorities are sentenced at or above mandatory minimums at a rate of +10 percent compared to white offenders. It also provides an understanding of how the original laws seemed to make sense but by examining the by-product, it has proven itself bad law, which needs to be repealed. There are forty-five states that allow “Life-without parole”, for homicide/murder. “Life without parole” can be viewed as an inaccurate description, in which there is no possibility of parole for at least 25 years, but parole is still possible. Conversely, Thirty-three of those jurisdictions have a life sentence in which parole is never p... ... middle of paper ... ... Reilly, B. (2013, January 1). Community, Evictions & Criminal Convictions. . Retrieved June 28, 2014, from http://ficpmovement.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/communities-evictions-criminal-convictions.pdf Saunders, L. (2012). Employment and Earnings: A Case Study of Urban Detroit. Review Of Black Political Economy, 39(1), 107-119. doi:10.1007/s12114-011-9128-9 Sentencing Guidelines As Applied To Murder. (n.d.). Sentencing Guidelines As Applied To Murder. Retrieved June 28, 2014, from http://www.crimevictimsunited.org/measure11/murderguidelines.htm Tonry, M. (2013). 'Nothing' Works: Sentencing 'Reform' in Canada and the United States. Canadian Journal Of Criminology & Criminal Justice, 55(4), 465-480. doi:10.3138/cjccj.2012.ES03 Western, B. (2007). The Prison Boom and the Decline of American Citizenship. Society, 44(5), 30-36. Doi:10.1007/s12115-007-9000-5
Mauer, Marc. 1999. The Race to Incarcerate. New York: The New Press National Research Council. 1993.
For a majority of the 20th century, sentencing policies had a minimal effect on social inequality (Western and Pettit 2002). In the early 1970s, this began to change when stricter sentencing policies were enacted (Western and Pettit 2002). Sentencing laws such as determinate sentencing, truth-in-sentencing, mandatory minimum sentencing, and three-strikes laws were enacted with the purpose of achieving greater consistency, certainty, and severity in sentencing (National Research Council 2014). Numerous inequalities involving race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status have generated an unprecedented rate of incarceration in America, especially among minority populations (Western and Pettit 2010). With numerous social inequalities currently
Mandatory minimum sentences make up a large proportion of the criminal penalties in Canada; yet, there is little reliable evidence showing that variations in the severity of punishment have a substantial deterrent effect (Durlauf, Steven N., Nagin, and Daniel S. 2011). Mandatory minimum sentences also create harsher penalties for crimes that don’t deserve it, and don’t take into account the scenario in which these crimes were committed (Gabor, Thomas 2001). For example, the inflexibilities for crimes such as murder in certain contexts. An instance such as a spouse kills her tormentor in a premeditated fashion. Crimes like this are almost always prompted by severe treats to the spouse’s life, or the life of their children (Gabor, Thomas 2001).
Thompson, Heather Anne. Why Mass Incarceration Matters: Rethinking Crisis, Decline, and Transformation in Postwar American History. The Journal of American History (2010) 97 (3): 703-734 doi:10.1093/jahist/97.3.703
Trachtenberg, B. (2009, February). Incarceration policy strikes out: Exploding prison population compromises the U.S. justice system. ABA Journal, 66.
2010, “Racial Disparities in Sentencing: Implications for the Criminal Justice System and the African American Community”, African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies 4(1): 1-31, in this Albonetti’s study is discussed in which it was found that minority status alone accounted for an additional sentence length of “one to seven months.” African American defendants were “likely to receive pretrial release but were more likely to be convicted, and be given harsher sentences after conviction than white defendants charged with the same crimes.” One of the reasons behind this are the sentencing laws, it is seen that these laws are designed in a way that they tend to be harsher towards a certain group of people, generally towards the people of color than others thus leading to inequality with the sentencing
Race and Ethnicity on Sentence Outcomes Under Different Sentencing Systems. Crime & Delinquency, 59(1), 87-114.
Harris, H. (2017, March). The Prison Dilemma: Ending America's Incarceration Epidemic. Foreign Affairs, pp. 118-129.
In todays society the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. This high incarceration rate is due to the growing phenomena known as mass incarceration. This phenomenon has led to massive increase of people being placed in prison and the amount of money being used for these prisons. The book, Race to Incarcerate by Marc Mauer, focuses on mass incarceration as our default social policy because of the weak welfare state in the U.S. In the book Mauer discusses the causes and the problems with this policy.
Racial disparity in drug related convictions has been a wide spread problem in the United States since the War on Drugs in the early 1980s. It was prevalent before that time, but minorities became the target of drug related crimes in startling numbers at this time. There are several hypotheses for this alarming situation, but the bottom line remains that racism is the leading cause of racial disparity in drug related convictions. Minorities from inner cities, with low-incomes and socioeconomic statuses who get caught in a downward spiral, are the easiest targets for the government to point the finger at for drug problems in the United States. The statistics will show that while more White people use illicit drugs in the United States, more African Americans and other minorities will be convicted, and more harshly than their White counterparts, for the same crimes.
...King, R., and Mauer, M., (2007). The Sentencing Project. Uneven Justice: State Rates of Incarceration by Race and Ethnicity. Retrieved from http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/rd_stateratesofincbyraceandethnicity.pdf
Mandatory minimum sentencing is the practice of requiring a predetermined prison sentence for certain crimes. The most notable mandatory minimums are the ones implemented in the 70’s and 80’s, hoping to combat the rising drug problem. Mandatory minimum sentencing has existed in the United States nearly since its very birth, with the first mandatory minimums being put into place around 1790. Recently, as the marijuana laws of many states have scaled back in severity, the issue of mandatory minimums has caused controversy in the US. There are two distinct sides to the argument surrounding mandatory minimum sentencing. One group believes we have a moral obligation to our country requiring us to do no less than lock up anyone with illegal drugs
The majority of our prison population is made up of African Americans of low social and economic classes, who come from low income houses and have low levels of education. The chapter also discusses the amount of money the United States loses yearly due to white collar crime as compared to the cost of violent crime. Another main point was the factors that make it more likely for a poor person to be incarcerated, such as the difficulty they would have in accessing adequate legal counsel and their inability to pay bail. This chapter addresses the inequality of sentencing in regards to race, it supplies us with NCVS data that shows less than one-fourth of assailants are perceived as black even though they are arrested at a much higher rate. In addition to African Americans being more likely to be charged with a crime, they are also more likely to receive harsher punishments for the same crimes- which can be seen in the crack/cocaine disparities. These harsher punishments are also shown in the higher rates of African Americans sentenced to
To begin, Mandatory minimum sentences result in prison overcrowding, and based on several studies, it does not alleviate crime, for example crimes such as shoplifting or solicitation. These sentencing guidelines do not allow a judge to take into consideration the first time offender, differentiate the deviance level of the offender, and it does not allow for the judge to alter a punishment or judgment to each individual case. When mandatory sentencing came into effect, the drug lords they were trying to stop are not the ones being affected by the sentences. It is the nonviolent, low-level drug users who are overcrowding the prisons as a result of these sentences. Both the U.S. Sentencing Commission and the Department of Justice have determined that mandatory sentencing is not an effective way to deter crime. Studies show that mandatory minimums have gone downhill due to racial a...
Sentencing models are plans or strategies developed for imposing punishment for crimes committed. During the 19th century these punishments were normally probation, fines and flat sentences. When someone was given a flat sentence, he or she had to serve the entire sentence without parole or early release. However, by the end of the 19th century the new models were developed. These new models include indeterminate, determinate, advisory/voluntary guidelines, presumptive and mandatory minimum sentencing (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2011).