Assessing Cumulative Disadvantage against Minority Female Defendants in State Courts
Description
Prior sentencing research, especially research on cumulative disadvantage, has mainly focused on the treatment of male defendants, and little attention has been paid to female defendants, especially minority female defendants. Drawing on the intersectional vulnerability and focal concerns perspectives, the current study emphasizes the need to examine disparity in sentencing through an intersectional lens and across multiple decision-making points. Using the State Court Processing Statistics dataset (SCPS) from 1990-2009, this paper investigates the impact that race/ethnicity has for female defendants across individual and successive stages in the sentencing process. The results suggest that race operates through direct and indirect pathways to cause lengthier sentences for Black female defendants compared to White female defendants, thus providing evidence of cumulative disadvantage against Black female defendants. Theoretical, research, and policy implications will be discussed.
Date Created
The date the item was original created (prior to any relationship with the ASU Digital Repositories.)
2018
Agent
- Author (aut): Kramer, Kelsey Layne
- Thesis advisor (ths): Wang, Xia
- Committee member: Spohn, Cassia
- Committee member: Telep, Cody
- Publisher (pbl): Arizona State University