| Researchers continue to shed light on the importance of examining the contextual influences that impact the imposition of criminal sentences (see Walker, et al 2000 for a review). These findings reveal that while the legal factors of a defendants case are the primary determinants of the harshness of criminal sentencing, these are not the only factors that impact such decision making. This analysis focuses attention on the intersection of race, ethnicity and gender on a range of offense types in the context of federal sentencing. Additional extra-legal variables will be introduced into the analysis, with particular focus on the impact of defendant's dependent children. Two harshness of sentencing variables will be analyzed (prison/no prison and length of sentence), with a range of legal and bureaucratic control variables. |
Updated 05/20/2006