And other evidence does not support that the system "favors blacks." The paper clearly states, "Heterogeneity across judges in sentencing by race suggests that courtroom outcomes may not be race blind." They can't remove the uncertainty, but they can see there is a racial component, and given the history of the United States and the findings in other studies, the idea of the theoretical judge favoring black defendants is unlikely. Can you say that statistically? No. But does other evidence suggest otherwise, yes.This is just a long way of saying that due to limitations of the study, they can't show whether the race factor favors whites or blacks.
They didn't do additional work because they wanted a publication; extra work is not so much about the effort, but because it's better to write a paper to highlight your novel method (Monte Carlo simulations), rather than trying to answer questions about every confounding variable. There is a degree of advancing your career here.They proposed ways to do this...yet they didn't and explained why.
Racial Gap in Men's SentencingThey did find a difference in incarceration rates...but not the sentencing. I've seen other studies that try to explain why black incarceration rates are higher (one proposed it's a result of blacks not taking plea deals more often than whites, something that I don't recall this study controlling for)...but I'm not going to post study after study when you have yet to post just one. You made several claims that blacks are sentenced unfairly, and I asked you to provide evidence in the form of a study just like you asked me.
US Sentencing Commission releases (and provides on-line here only) new Booker reportPrison sentences of black men were nearly 20% longer than those of white men for similar crimes in recent years, an analysis by the U.S. Sentencing Commission found.
That racial gap has widened since the Supreme Court restored judicial discretion in sentencing in 2005, according to the Sentencing Commission's findings, which were submitted to Congress last month and released publicly this week.
In its report, the commission recommended that federal judges give sentencing guidelines more weight, and that appeals courts more closely scrutinize sentences that fall beyond them.
Download Booker_PressRelease_final
Download Part A - Continuing Impact of Booker on Federal Sentencing
Download Part A - Continuing Impact of Booker on Federal Sentencing
It is quite clear there is racial discrimination that they may not be able to pinpoint with complete statistical certainty. However, given the policies like stop-and-frisk (of which I was surprisingly stopped in a polo shirt and khakis, you know "thug life"), police shootings, as well as evidence of racial discrimination in employment, housing, etc., suggestions arguing that there is no racism is ridiculous on its face. These factors are not independent, they're interconnected, and the current state is unacceptable, hence the reason to keep keepin' on.
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