Award Date
1-1-2005
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Criminal Justice
First Committee Member
Randy Shelden
Number of Pages
50
Abstract
Drawing upon a national sample of offenders from the U.S. Sentencing Commission through the ICPSR, the current study examines the extent of racial disparities in federal sentencing of drug offenders. After controlling for demographic characteristics of the defendants results from the analysis indicate that blacks and Hispanics convicted of drug offenses receive more prison sentences than white defendants. Black defendants receive longer prison sentences than whites and Hispanics for the same type of drug offenses. Although Hispanics receive more prison sentences than whites their prisons sentences are significantly shorter than prison sentences for black and white defendants. It is determined that the interaction between race of the defendant and the type of crime affects federal sentencing outcomes for drug offenses.
Keywords
Disparities; Drug; Federal; Offenders; Racial; Sentencing
Controlled Subject
Criminology; Blacks--Study and teaching; Hispanic Americans--Study
File Format
File Size
1310.72 KB
Degree Grantor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Language
English
Permissions
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Repository Citation
Castrejon, Jorge Adrian, "Racial disparities in the federal sentencing of drug offenders" (2005). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 1929.
http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/gw9x-smpk
Rights
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