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The Impact Of Race/Ethnicity On Sentencing: A Matching Approach, Travis Jones

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to study the direct impact of race/ethnicity on sentencing of federal drug offenders. In order to accomplish this goal, an exact matching approach is utilized to generate strata containing white, black and Hispanic offenders who are matched based on relevant legal and extra-legal factors derived from focal concerns theory. The total sentences (i.e. fines, probation, incarceration, etc.) of matched offenders are then compared pairwise to determine which offender received the more severe sentence. The findings overall do not suggest that black and Hispanic offenders receive more severe sentences to comparable white offenders; however, drug …