Committee Chair

Iles, Gale D.

Committee Member

Bumphus, Vic; McGuffee, Karen

Department

Dept. of Criminal Justice and Legal Assistant Studies

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

In the wake of negative stereotypes of immigrants from lower status countries, this study used federal sentencing data for 2015 to examine the effects of the defendant’s country of citizenship on sentence outcomes. Although the United States Sentencing Commission has long stipulated that national origin isn’t a relevant factor in determining sentence, a growing body of sentencing research has found evidence that a defendant’s country of citizenship continues to influence sentence outcome. Findings of the current study revealed partial support that national origins do matter. Specifically, after controlling for a number of legally relevant, case processing and extralegal factors, defendants from Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and Middle-East/North Africa were found to receive more favorable sentences than those given to their Mexican counterparts. However, a second model that compared the Mexican region to all other regions failed to reach statistical significance. Policy implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Degree

M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science.

Date

5-2018

Subject

Crime and race -- United States; Criminal justice, Administration of -- United States; Discrimination in criminal justice administration -- United States

Document Type

Masters theses

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

viii, 33 leaves

Language

English

Rights

https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

Download

Share

COinS