Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Mandatory Minimum Reforms, Sentencing, and Racial-Ethnic Disparities

Mandatory Minimum Reforms, Sentencing, and Racial-Ethnic Disparities AbstractOver the last 20 years, numerous states and the federal government enacted mandatory minimum reforms, especially for drug offenses. Yet little is known about how effective these reforms have been at the state-level in lowering drug sentences. Using quasi-experimental methods and administrative data, this study evaluates the impact of state-level mandatory minimum reforms on drug sentences and their concomitant racial-ethnic disparities. We find that state-level mandatory minimum reforms do not lower drug sentences in general or change racial-ethnic disparities statistically significantly. These findings suggest that the profound racial-ethnic bias sparked by state-level mandatory minimums are not fully ameliorated by subsequent state-level reforms. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy de Gruyter

Mandatory Minimum Reforms, Sentencing, and Racial-Ethnic Disparities

Download PDF
30 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/de-gruyter/mandatory-minimum-reforms-sentencing-and-racial-ethnic-disparities-0cAfS7ZVWv
Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
ISSN
1935-1682
eISSN
1935-1682
DOI
10.1515/bejeap-2020-0215
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

AbstractOver the last 20 years, numerous states and the federal government enacted mandatory minimum reforms, especially for drug offenses. Yet little is known about how effective these reforms have been at the state-level in lowering drug sentences. Using quasi-experimental methods and administrative data, this study evaluates the impact of state-level mandatory minimum reforms on drug sentences and their concomitant racial-ethnic disparities. We find that state-level mandatory minimum reforms do not lower drug sentences in general or change racial-ethnic disparities statistically significantly. These findings suggest that the profound racial-ethnic bias sparked by state-level mandatory minimums are not fully ameliorated by subsequent state-level reforms.

Journal

The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy – de Gruyter

Published: Oct 28, 2021

Keywords: sentencing; mandatory minimum laws; racial-ethnic disparities; K14; K42

There are no references for this article.