Doctoral Dissertation Research: Sentencing reforms as anti-discrimination policy

采取确定的量刑政策，部分原因是为了回应将自由裁量权与歧视联系起来的批评，并主张确定的“不分肤色”政策来取代当时的不确定判决；因此，这些政策是反歧视措施。本文将通过分析确定量刑政策的采用与被监禁人口规模和组成的变化和连续性之间的关系，来研究色盲反歧视政策的优势和局限性。探讨这种关系的研究问题将通过分析主要和次要数据集来回答，这些数据集包含有关惩罚结果、量刑和各种州一级变量和个体罪犯特征的信息。该分析将使用来自所有50个州的数据，将考察1980年至2000年这段时间，并将包括三种研究设计。首先，将使用汇总的横截面时间序列分析来衡量这些改革对监禁率、入院率和服刑时间的影响，以及这些措施中的种族、民族和性别差异。其次，采用个体纵向设计考察量刑改革对服刑时间变化的影响以及法外特征对服刑时间的影响。前两篇分析将仅限于我收集了大量量刑改革立法数据的六个州。最后，采用个体水平纵向设计，考察事实在量刑、假释废除、量刑指南采用等方面对服刑时间的影响，以及法外特征对服刑时间的影响。在美国，基于群体成员的惩罚结果差异是一个历史悠久的社会现实，而过去25年监狱的繁荣加剧了这种差异的影响。因此，我们越来越迫切地需要了解作为补救措施的政策的影响。本研究的更广泛的影响包括以下方面：由于提出的分析解决了歧视的定义如何影响政策，从而指导政策结果，本研究的发现将有助于政策制定者设计更明智和有效的反歧视政策。尽管研究人员和政策制定者经常假设量刑改革与监禁人口统计数据的变化和连续性之间存在因果关系，但我们目前还没有对这些政策的影响进行全面的实证评估。这项研究将对许多刑事司法政策制定者目前所依据的假设进行实证检验。

Determinate sentencing polices were adopted, in part, in response to critiques that linked discretion to discrimination and advocated for determinate 'colorblind' policies to replace the indeterminate sentences of the time; as such, these policies are anti-discrimination measures. This dissertation will examine the strengths and limitations of colorblind anti-discrimination policies by analyzing the relationships between the adoption of determinate sentencing policies and changes and continuities in the size and composition of the incarcerated population. Research questions exploring this relationship will be answered by analyzing primary and secondary datasets containing information on punishment outcomes, sentencing, and a variety of state level variables and characteristics of individual offenders. The analysis will use data from all 50 states, will examine the period from 1980 to 2000, and will consist of three research designs. First, pooled cross-sectional time-series analysis will be used to measure the effects of these reforms on incarceration rates, admission rates, and time-served, as well as racial, ethnic, and gender disparity in these measures. Next, an individual level longitudinal design will be employed to access the effects of sentencing reforms on changes in time-served and the impact of extra-legal characteristics on time-served. These first two analyses will be limited to the six states for which I have collected extensive data on sentencing reform legislation. Finally, an individual level longitudinal design will be used to access the effects of truth in sentencing, parole abolition, and the adoption of sentencing guidelines on time-served and the effect of extra-legal characteristics on time-served. While group-membership based disparities in punishment outcomes are a social reality with a long history in the US, the prison boom of the last quarter century has increased the impact of these disparities. As such, it is increasingly urgent that we understand the effects of policies adopted as remedies The broader impacts of this research include the following: Because the proposed analyses address the ways in which definitions of discrimination shape policy and thus direct policy outcomes, the findings of this study will help policymakers design more informed and effective anti-discrimination policies. Although researchers and policy makers often assume a causal relationship between sentencing reforms and changes and continuities in the demographics of imprisonment, we currently have no comprehensive empirical assessment of the effects of these policies. This study will provide an empirical test for assumptions under which many criminal justice policy makers currently operate.