Persistent Offender Law: Racial Disparity, Patterned Offenses, and Unintended Effects (Criminal Justice (Lfb Scholarly Publishing Llc).)

Considering sentencing under persistent offender laws, Rodriguez examines the correlations between sentence and race and ethnicity. Her study uses sentencing data on repeat and third-strike offenders in Washington state to assess the effect of legal and extralegal variables on sentencing outcomes and the pattern of offenses committed. In addition, interviews with prosecutors and defense attorneys throughout the state provide contextual information on the impacts of the law. Rodriguez finds that racial disparity is confined to specific offense types and mitigated by other legal variables. Annotation Given increasingly tough crime control policy trends in the US, Rodriguez (administration of justice, Arizona State U. West) studied the theoretical context and consequences of Washington State's Persistent Offender Accountability Act from 1993-97, one of many state and a Federal "three strikes" laws. She found some but not consistent race/ethnicity disparity in sentencing chronic offenders of serious crimes. Interviews with courtroom personnel yielded much uncertainty about the law's impact on crime. Data tables and the interview questions are appended. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Contents......Page 6 List of Tables......Page 8 1. Crime Control Through Sentencing Severity......Page 10 2. Sentencing Mechanisms and Courtroom Culture......Page 22 3. Three Strikes Law and Racial Disparity......Page 38 4. Methodology......Page 48 5. Analytical Results......Page 68 6. Conclusion and Discussion......Page 96 Tables......Page 103 Appendix A......Page 134 Appendix B......Page 138 B......Page 140 C......Page 141 D......Page 142 G......Page 143 K......Page 144 L......Page 145 M......Page 146 R......Page 147 S......Page 148 V......Page 150 Z......Page 151 P......Page 152 Z......Page 153 The connection between sentencing policies and criminal conduct has been the subject of substantial research and scholarly inquiry (Blumstein, 1996; Crawford, Chiricos, & Kleck, 1998; Dilulio, 1991; Tonry, 1996; Zimring & Hawkins, 1991; Zimring, Hawkins, & Kamin, 2001).