Researchers say they their new study suggests a reason why African Americans are overrepresented in prison. Black defendants are more likely to be sentenced to prison than whites, on average, but the racial gap is even more pronounced among some judges, suggesting that race is influencing the decision, the study found.
The researchers studied judicial variations in sentencing in felony cases from Cook County, Ill., which includes Chicago. “Race matters in the courtroom,” says the study posted as SSRN. Differences in sentencing by race across judges “suggests that courtroom outcomes may not be race blind. This may be one source of the substantial overrepresentation of African-Americans in the prison population.”
Complete article about study
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Do Judges Vary in Their Treatment of Race, set for publication in The Journal of Legal Studies
