Racial and Ethnic Sentencing Differentials in the Federal Criminal Justice System
AEA Papers and Proceedings
vol. 108,
May 2018
(pp. 241-45)
Abstract
A large body of multidisciplinary research has documented how sentencing outcomes vary tremendously across racial and ethnic groups. The research challenge lies in establishing whether these sentencing differentials are driven by unobserved heterogeneity correlated to defendant race/ethnicity, or whether they reflect discrimination. We add to the debate by examining the robustness of racial/ethnic sentencing gaps, by gender, when allowing for selection on unobservables. We do so in the context of federal criminal cases, considering 250,000 cases, and using a dataset containing a rich set of covariates relating to defendant and legal characteristics of cases.Citation
McConnell, Brendon, and Imran Rasul. 2018. "Racial and Ethnic Sentencing Differentials in the Federal Criminal Justice System." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 108: 241-45. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20181006Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
- K41 Litigation Process
- K42 Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law