TY - JOUR
T1 - The Impact of United States v. Booker and Gall/Kimbrough v. United States on Sentence Severity
T2 - Assessing Social Context and Judicial Discretion
AU - Kim, Byungbae
AU - Cano, Mario V.
AU - Kim, Ki Deuk
AU - Spohn, Cassia
PY - 2016/8/1
Y1 - 2016/8/1
N2 - In the wake of United States v. Booker and Gall/Kimbrough v. United States, sentencing researchers and legal scholars conducted research designed to identify their impact on the federal sentencing process, with a focus on determining whether the decisions increased unwarranted disparity. In this article, we extend this body of research. Using 10 years of data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission and data from other sources, we assess whether and how these decisions influence sentence severity. Results indicate that sentence severity declined following Booker and, especially, Gall/Kimbrough, but that the decisions’ effects on sentence severity varied significantly across U.S. District Courts. Most importantly, the impact of Gall/Kimbrough sentence severity was conditioned by districts’ percent Black population, level of socioeconomic disadvantage, and degree of political conservatism; each of these factors moderated the decisions’ effects on the harshness of the sentences imposed by the districts’ judges.
AB - In the wake of United States v. Booker and Gall/Kimbrough v. United States, sentencing researchers and legal scholars conducted research designed to identify their impact on the federal sentencing process, with a focus on determining whether the decisions increased unwarranted disparity. In this article, we extend this body of research. Using 10 years of data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission and data from other sources, we assess whether and how these decisions influence sentence severity. Results indicate that sentence severity declined following Booker and, especially, Gall/Kimbrough, but that the decisions’ effects on sentence severity varied significantly across U.S. District Courts. Most importantly, the impact of Gall/Kimbrough sentence severity was conditioned by districts’ percent Black population, level of socioeconomic disadvantage, and degree of political conservatism; each of these factors moderated the decisions’ effects on the harshness of the sentences imposed by the districts’ judges.
KW - Gall/Kimbrough v. U.S
KW - U.S. v. Booker
KW - federal sentencing
KW - sentence severity
KW - social context
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84976381552&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84976381552&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0011128714551783
DO - 10.1177/0011128714551783
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84976381552
SN - 0011-1287
VL - 62
SP - 1072
EP - 1094
JO - Crime and Delinquency
JF - Crime and Delinquency
IS - 8
ER -