This article reflects on the methodological approach adopted by McSweeney et al. in their study of the federal sentencing of maritime narcotics traffickers. It compares the authors’ data collection and analytic strategies with conventional approaches to sentencing research, which typically use data from sentencing commissions. Three distinctions between the respective approaches are emphasized: sampling on arrest versus conviction; the inclusion (or not) of identifying information about judges and prosecutors; and the analysis of court characteristics. McSweeney et al.’s data collection strategy overcomes some stubborn issues in sentencing research, such as sampling on conviction offense and the omission of judge-identifying information. Their strategy, which is more labor intensive, can serve as a primer for researchers concerned with sample selection and related challenges.

Why are hate crime cases so rarely prosecuted? Most states and the federal government have hate crime laws on their books, yet available data indicate few prosecutions in most jurisdictions. Drawing on case files and interviews with police and prosecutors in one jurisdiction, three institutional impediments to hate crime prosecution are identified: evidentiary inflation, by which law enforcement uses a higher burden of proof than what is required by statute; loose coupling between police departments and prosecutors' offices; and cultural distance between law enforcement and victims. Findings also reveal that advocacy groups and media can successfully increase the visibility of cases and draw the attention of prosecutors. The findings align with aspects of legal endogeneity theory and enhance our understanding of the role of organizations in constructing the meaning of law. The results also help explain why some laws are rarely enforced, even when they have support from key personnel in an organization.

In this article on School Police Officers (SPOs), we showcase the link between SPOs and exacerbated racial disparities in justice involvement and youth being driven deeper into criminal justice systems. Yet SPOs have been linked with increased arrests for non-criminal, youthful behavior, fueling the school-to-prison pipeline. It is important to note that the presence of SPOs is notably higher in schools with higher percentages of Black or Latino youth. Singling out the concerning and ever-widening reach of the justice system, SPOs are frequently given authority to intervene when non-criminal school rules are broken. By engaging mostly in law enforcement tactics, such as arrests, rather than education and mentorship programs that can act as preventative measures to rule-breaking at school, SPO presence often results in overall harsher punishments and increased arrests for youth non-criminal behavior. These policing practices “disproportionately expose children of color to the justice system at a young age [and] are correlated with a higher likelihood of incarceration as an adult”. Given the long term consequences associated with a single arrest—increased likelihood of dropping out and long-term consequences in obtaining adequate employment—we present policy recommendations to help rethink investments toward the types of approaches that are more likely to make schools safe and away from SPO involvement. These include using counselors, social workers and teachers, and alternative and restorative justice practices to address problematic behavior in schools.

This research examines the association between economic insecurity and imprisonment rates in the United States. Building on Garland’s thesis about punishment and late modernity, it is hypothesized that rising economic insecurity in a population is associated with an increase in the imprisonment rate. This hypothesis is tested with state-level data for the years 1986–2013. Results indicate a robust association between changes in economic insecurity, measured as the percentage of households in a state losing a quarter or more of their income in a single year, and changes in imprisonment rates. This finding suggests that economic insecurity is not only relevant for explaining large-scale shifts in penal philosophy and practice, as prior sociological theory has argued. It also explains some of the year-to-year variation in imprisonment rates and points to another way in which inequality is associated with punishment.

Blacks and Hispanics convicted of felonies are more likely than whites to receive prison sentences for their crimes, and they receive slightly longer sentences if imprisoned. Yet the majority of prior research compares sentencing decisions at a single point in time and does not give explicit attention to whether and how racial and ethnic disparities have changed. Decades of sentencing data from Minnesota, the federal courts, and a sample of large urban counties are used to assess the degree of change in racial and ethnic sentencing disparities since the 1980s. There has been some decline in the magnitude of racial and ethnic disparities, with changes in drug laws aligning with some of the reduction in disparity at the federal level. This trend, along with the pattern of findings from related studies, poses a challenge to prominent theoretical explanations of sentencing disparities, including racial threat theory and the focal concerns perspective. Each of four influential theoretical explanations of racial and ethnic disparities in sentencing includes significant empirical or logical shortcomings. Advancing theoretical understanding of racial and ethnic disparity will require new data that follow cases from the point of arrest through to final disposition and include information about citizenship and victims.

The U.S. Federal Statistical System (FSS) is searching for ways to ensure high quality data in surveys, given declines in response rates and the associated increase in operational costs. They are searching for ways to address problems with public trust in the government, if these issues could hinder their efforts. To address these concerns, the Census Bureau partnered with other federal statistical agencies to collect data to assess attitudes, beliefs, and concerns the public may have regarding federal statistics and the agencies that collect them. This public opinion data enables the FSS to better understand public perceptions, and provides guidance for communicating with the public and for future planning of data collection. This paper examines the impact of various factors on trust in the FSS, including attitudes (belief in credibility and transparency of federal statistics), and behavior (use of federal statistics). This research supports Brackfield and Fellegi’s model of trust in official statistics by providing evidence of a significant relationship between credibility of statistical products and trust in statistics more generally (Brackfield 2011; Fellegi, 1996, 2004, 2010). These data also suggest that promoting trust in statistical products could lead towards increased trust in the agencies that produce them.

This research describes and explains changes in non-citizen deportations from the United States between 1908 and 1986. Using data from historical immigration yearbooks, we first document and quantify the primary reasons given for removing immigrants from U.S. soil. A key finding is that perceived dispositional defects and threatening behavior (e.g., criminal behavior, mental or physical defects) accounted for a large proportion of deportations in the early 20th century, but these gave way to administrative rationales (e.g., improper documentation) as immigration law and the enforcement bureaucracy expanded. Results of time-series analyses further suggest that the homicide rate is correlated with deportations for administrative reasons and with deportations based on perceived dispositional defects and threatening behavior. Implications and relevance for understanding current immigration debates are discussed.

Why has the probability of going to prison after a felony conviction increased since the early 1980s? Social scientists often try to answer this question through macro-level research that is aimed at examining correlations between prison admissions and crime rates or sociopolitical characteristics of states. That type of macro-level inquiry, however, does not allow for a close examination of how characteristics of offenders changed over time, and whether such changes are consequential for understanding trends in the use of imprisonment. In the current study, I take a different approach-one in which case-level data are observed over a lengthy time span-to investigate why the likelihood of going to prison for a given crime persistently increased for several decades. The results of analyses of more than 350,000 felony cases sentenced in Minnesota during a 33-year period show that the probability of a defendant receiving a prison sentence increased from 1981 to 2013, as would be expected. The primary reason for the rising probability of imprisonment was the significant increase in the average offender's criminal record, which more than doubled during the observation period.

We investigate the associations among physical appearance, threat perceptions, and criminal punishment. Psychological ideas about impression formation are integrated with criminological perspectives on sentencing to generate and test unique hypotheses about the associations among defendant facial characteristics, subjective evaluations of threatening appearance, and judicial imprisonment decisions. We analyze newly collected data that link booking photos, criminal histories, and sentencing information for more than 1,100 convicted felony defendants. Our findings indicate that Black defendants are perceived to be more threatening in appearance. Other facial characteristics, such as physical attractiveness, baby‐faced appearance, facial scars, and visible tattoos, also influence perceptions of threat, as do criminal history scores. Furthermore, some physical appearance characteristics are significantly related to imprisonment decisions, even after controlling for other relevant case characteristics. These and other findings are discussed as they relate to psychological research on impression formation, criminological theories of court actor decision‐making, and sociological work on race and punishment.

Previous research has shown differential counts by race and ethnicity across several recent United States decennial censuses. This article presents findings from a 2010 Census ethnographic evaluation with a record check, conducted to identify factors affecting enumeration among racial/ethnic groups. In eight sites targeted to major racial/ethnic groups, ethnographers observed live census interviews and assessed where persons should have been counted. In the record check, housing unit rosters were matched with four data sources to identify inconsistencies in where to count persons. Ethnographic themes that contributed to record check inconsistencies include respondent access difficulty, language issues, and cultural issues. Ways to improve enumeration include improving access to hard-to-reach respondents and increasing the cultural awareness of enumerators.

ObjectiveTo compare estimates of health coverage from the pre- and post- redesign of the Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement.Data Sources/Study SettingThe CPS 2013 Content Test.Study DesignA test of the old and new CPS in which the control panel was a subset of the CPS production cases interviewed by phone and the test panel was conducted in parallel (also by phone) with a sample that had already completed the final rotation of the CPS. Outcome variables tested include uninsured and coverage type by subgroup and calendar year versus point-in-time estimates.Data Collection/Extraction MethodsCensus Bureau telephone interviewers.Principal FindingsThe odds of having coverage in the past calendar year were higher under the new than the old CPS. Within the new CPS, calendar year estimates of coverage were higher than and distinct from point-in-time estimates. There were few statistically significant differences in coverage across demographic subgroups.ConclusionsThe new method reduced presumed underreporting of past year coverage, and the integrated point-in-time/calendar-year series effectively generated distinct measures of each within the same questionnaire.

Chapter 25 Similar from a Distance A Comparison of Terrorism and Hate Crime Ryan D. King, Ryan D. KingSearch for more papers by this authorLaura M. DeMarco, Laura M. DeMarcoSearch for more papers by this authorRobert J. VandenBerg, Robert J. VandenBergSearch for more papers by this author Ryan D. King, Ryan D. KingSearch for more papers by this authorLaura M. DeMarco, Laura M. DeMarcoSearch for more papers by this authorRobert J. VandenBerg, Robert J. VandenBergSearch for more papers by this author Book Editor(s):Gary LaFree, Gary LaFreeSearch for more papers by this authorJoshua D. Freilich, Joshua D. FreilichSearch for more papers by this author First published: 24 November 2016 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118923986.ch25 AboutPDFPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShareShare a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Summary This chapter assesses the similarities and differences between hate crime and terrorism. Comparisons are made across several criteria, including characteristics of offenders, targets, contexts, lethality, and motivations. A review of empirical research on each topic and a canvassing of work that explicitly links the two behaviors produce two conclusions. First, similarities between hate crime and terrorism only emerge at a high level of abstraction, and close inspection reveals that they are distinct and best treated as separate phenomena in future research. Second, the two behaviors are correlated in a specific way such that hate crime often follows certain types of terrorist attacks. We close with some ideas for future research that would shed additional light on the relationship between hate crime and terrorism. The Handbook of the Criminology of Terrorism RelatedInformation

Defendants charged with crimes in US courts rarely go to trial. Instead, convicted defendants typically waive their right to trial and plead guilty, sometimes after bargaining for a reduced charge or reduced sentence. This article takes stock of the theoretical and empirical research on guilty pleas and organizes the key findings and limitations across this interdisciplinary body of work. Several areas in need of empirical attention are identified, and recommendations are offered for advancing future work on this important but understudied facet of the criminal justice system.

Two related lines of research have gained traction in the social sciences during the past three decades. One examines the association between race and punishment, while a second investigates stratification and colorism, defined as discrimination based on skin tone. Yet rarely do scholars examine these issues together. The current study uses new data to investigate the association between offender's skin tone, Afrocentric facial features, and criminal punishment. More than 850 booking photos of black and white male offenders in two Minnesota counties were coded and then matched to detailed sentencing records. Results indicate that darker skin tone and Afrocentric facial features are associated with harsher sanctions and that the latter effect is particularly salient for white defendants. The findings add to existing work on skin tone and stratification and suggest that future research should consider other aspects of appearance, such as facial features, in the study of punishment and inequality.

Objectives: This research examines the association between paternal incarceration and children’s delinquency. Prior research suggests an association, although omitted variable bias is an enduring issue. Methods: To help address issues related to unobserved heterogeneity, we employ a method uncommonly used in criminological research. Rather than comparing the children of incarcerated fathers to respondents who have never had a father incarcerated, we exploit the longitudinal nature of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to generate a strategic comparison group: respondents who will have a father incarcerated in the future. We also examine two types of delinquency, expressive and instrumental, to infer plausible mechanisms linking paternal incarceration and delinquency. Results: When using “futures” as comparison cases, results differ from much prior work and suggest a spurious association between paternal incarceration and instrumental delinquency (e.g., theft). Paternal incarceration retains a significant effect on expressive delinquency, which is partly mediated by reduced attachment to fathers. Conclusions: The association between paternal incarceration and expressive (but not instrumental) crime supports Agnew’s strain theory and elements of control theory. Our comparison group also offers important advantages in terms of addressing unobserved heterogeneity, and we think this approach would prove useful for other topics in criminology.

At a time when public confidence in the Federal government is at an all-time low, Federal statistical agencies were interested in knowing whether their image would suffer as well. Using data gathered in the Gallup Daily Poll to answer this question, we found that, as level of knowledge about federal statistics increases and for data users, respondents’ discrimination among government entities seems to increase – the strength of the relationships between confidence in the Federal Statistical System, on one hand, and in Congress and the Military, on the other, decreases. In a time when confidence in Congress is particularly poor, increasing knowledge about the statistical system and increasing the public’s use of statistical data, through programs like “Statistics in Schools” could help people differentiate between sectors of the government, thus increasing confidence in the Federal Statistical System.