Pauline K. Brennan

Sentencing Female Misdemeanants: An Examination of the Direct and Indirect Effects of Race/Ethnicity

Little is known about the predictors of sentencing for the typical female offender—one who commits a misdemeanor or lesser offense. Moreover, although ample discussions of racial/ethnic disparity in sentencing may be found in the extant literature, most researchers have focused on what happens to males who commit felonies. Thus, to help fill a void I examine the likelihood of receiving a jail sentence among a sample of cases for female misdemeanants. All were convicted in New York Citys Criminal Court. I account for direct and indirect effects by estimating a causal model that predicts the sentencing outcome. Race/ethnicity did not directly affect sentencing. Indirect effects, however, were found. Black and Hispanic females were more likely to receive jail sentences than their White counterparts due to differences in socio‐economic status, community ties, prior record, earlier case processing, and charge severity.

The Effects of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorders on Institutional Misconduct Among Female Inmates

Mentally ill offenders are disproportionately involved in prison misconduct. Although mental illness is recognized as a risk factor for poor prison adjustment, the additive nature of mental illness co-occurring with substance use disorders has not yet been examined. Using data from the Survey of Inmates in State Correctional Facilities, we compare the institutional misconduct experiences of female inmates with co-occurring disorders (CODs) to those for inmates with singular disorders or no disorders. Bivariate and multivariate analyses indicated that the risk of misbehavior was higher for inmates with mental illness combined with a drug dependence/abuse disorder than for inmates with singular disorders, but their disciplinary experiences did not statistically differ. These findings suggest that inmates with CODs may pose a uniquely complex challenge for prison administration, which has important implications for corrections policy and practice.

Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Predictive Validity of the Level of Service Inventory–Revised Among Prison Inmates

The Level of Service Inventory–Revised (LSI-R) is a risk/needs assessment tool that is widely used in correctional settings. Extant research has demonstrated the predictive validity of the LSI-R for individuals under correctional supervision. Yet, few researchers have assessed whether the LSI-R and its various subcomponents predict prison misconduct similarly for White versus non-White inmates. Using data collected from male inmates confined in prisons across a Midwestern state, we examined the predictive validity of the LSI-R and its 10 subcomponents for White, Black, and Hispanic inmates. We found that the LSI-R predicted the prevalence of misconduct for inmates of varying races/ethnicities. However, we reached a different conclusion when we examined the incidence of misconduct; the LSI-R composite score and subcomponent scores showed greater predictive utility for White inmates than for non-White inmates. Our findings add to a growing body of research that suggests that the predictive validity of the LSI-R differs by offender race/ethnicity. We discuss the policy implications of our findings and offer recommendations for future research.

Cultural Considerations and Challenges to Service Delivery for Sudanese Victims of Domestic Violence: Insights from Service Providers and Actors in the Criminal Justice System*

Omaha, Nebraska has recently seen an influx of immigrant refugees from the African nation of Sudan. Domestic violence service providers wony that many Sudanese women are suffering abuse in silence. With that in mind, we identified a number of common obstacles that immigrant women are likely to face when accessing services for domestic violence. We interviewed victim advocates, criminal justice personnel, and other community-based service providers. Our respondents identified the areas of difficulty they encountered most frequently when working with Sudanese clients. Everyone interviewed agreed that Sudanese cultural norms created barriers to service delivery. Our respondents also discussed the strategies they employed when they provided services to Sudanese women, along with their impressions about how well or how poorly those approaches worked. We present their experiences, their challenges, and their recommendations for the future.

The Joint Effects of Offender Race/Ethnicity and Sexon Sentencing Outcomes

Statistical data suggest that offender race/ethnicity and sex play important roles in criminal justice processing. Minority offenders and males, for example, are disproportionately overrepresented in U.S. prisons and jails. Specifically, based on the number of prison and jail inmates incarcerated in state facilities at mid-2005, Harrison and Beck (2006) estimated that rates of incarceration were five and one-half times higher for blacks and two times higher for Hispanics than they were for whites (p. 10). With regard to offender sex, at mid-2006, males constituted 92.8% of the U.S. prison population; they were 14 times more likely than women to be incarcerated (Sabol, Minton, & Harrison, June 2007, p. 5). Moreover, researchers estimate that a male has a 1 in 9 chance of going to prison in his lifetime, while a female has a 1 in 56 chance (Bonczar, 2003, p. 8). Incarceration statistics also reveal how the degree of minority overrepresentation varies by an offender’s sex; a larger proportion of the male prison population consists of minority inmates. According to 2006 year-end data, white inmates made up 38% of the male prison population; in comparison, 47% of all females incarcerated in state and Federal prisons were white (Sabol, Couture, & Harrison, December 2007, Table 7). Relative to their white counterparts, black

RACE AND SENTENCING OUTCOMES AMONG FEMALE DRUG OFFENDERS IN NORTH CAROLINA: AN EXPLORATORY CONSIDERATION OF EARLIER CASE PROCESSING OUTCOMES

ABSTRACT A largely unanswered question is whether black and white female offenders receive differential treatment by the criminal justice system. The current exploratory study examined sentencing outcomes for a random sample of female drug offenders convicted during calendar year 2000 in a large urban jurisdiction in North Carolina, with consideration given to earlier case processing outcomes. Black and white women came to the attention of the authorities in different ways and had notably different drug indictment charges. Black women were more likely to receive charge severity reductions at the disposition stage than white women, and this appeared to be related to the manner in which they were apprehended by the police. Findings for differences at the sentencing stage were mixed. While black women were not more likely to end up behind bars than white women, they were more likely to be given shorter community-based punishments. Police interdiction strategies did not influence the sentencing outcome.

Age Group Differences in the Predictive Validity of the Level of Service Inventory–Revised

The Level of Service Inventory–Revised (LSI-R) is a widely used risk assessment tool with demonstrated predictive validity among incarcerated offenders. However, researchers have yet to examine the predictive validity of the LSI-R with adult inmates of different ages. We examined the predictive validity of the LSI-R and its 10 subcomponents across developmentally defined age groups of men confined in prisons in a Midwestern state. We found that the LSI-R predicted the prevalence of misconduct similarly across the groups, but there were a number of differences in the magnitude of the effects when we examined the incidence of prison misconduct.