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Immigration, race/ethnicity, and differential sentencing: An examination of the effects of citizenship status on sentencing outcomes in federal courts

Posted on:2010-10-28Degree:Ph.DType:Dissertation
University:University of Nebraska at OmahaCandidate:Wu, JawjeongFull Text:PDF
GTID:1446390002984948Subject:Sociology
Abstract/Summary:
This study assesses the impact of an offender's citizenship status in a more comprehensive and theoretically grounded way than previous research. Using the 2006 Monitoring of Federal Criminal Sentences data, supplemented by the GDP-PPP per capita data, this study explores main effects of citizenship status and its interactions with race/ethnicity, national origin, and geographic locations on the likelihood of incarceration, probation length, and prison sentence length. Research hypotheses are framed to test the between-group relationship in terms of citizenship status and the within-group relationship in terms of race/ethnicity. An integrated theoretical framework using conflict theory, typification theory, threat hypotheses, and other emerging sentencing theories is developed to explain the independent and interactive effects of citizenship status and race/ethnicity on sentencing outcomes.;Results reveal that non-U.S. citizens are sentenced more severely than are U.S. citizens only in the incarceration decision but not in the probation length and prison sentence length decisions. These effects persist even after an offender's national origin is taken into account. There are also varying effects of offender and legal characteristics on sentencing outcomes across the partitioned citizen and non-citizen groups. Finally, the results fail to support a double-disadvantage effect for Black-Latino non-citizens and lend no support for the more pronounced unwarranted disparity in southern bordering and/or high immigration states than in northern bordering states or the remaining states.;The findings of this study support the two-stage sentencing process and suggest the need of examining regional variation. The findings regarding federal judges' harshness in the incarceration decision while showing leniency in the probation length and prison sentence length decisions for non-citizen offenders reflect a balance between focal concerns and the enhanced social control of conflict theory. Removal proceedings that apply to non-citizen offenders may have played a crucial role in the complicated sentencing process. Furthermore, judges' typification of offenders based on a racial/ethnic threat is found for both non-citizen and citizen offenders.
Keywords/Search Tags:Citizenship status, Sentencing, Effects, Race/ethnicity, Prison sentence length, Federal, Offenders, Non-citizen
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