An Examination of the Interactions of Race and Gender on Sentencing Decisions Using a Trichotomous Dependent Variable

In this article the author Tina Freiburger discusses how many different men and women don't "have the experiences in the court room"(Freisburger63). What does she mean by this? As her article goes on she reveals the answer and this is in many court rooms there are race and gender biases.Based on already done research  Freisburger came to find the young minorities (Black and Hispanic men) are more likely to be incarcerated into the prison system while young white men are more likely to get probation. She then found that women in general get lesser sentencing than men men so they would get probation over jail time but the minority effect still applied to women so minority women still got more serious sentences. Freisburger then did a study of her own where she looked at over 2000 cases from a county in Michigan. Hispanics were taken out of the study because there wasn't a large enough sample. She still found similar results that had to do with race and gender. She found that African American men were way more likely to get jail time while white men were more likely to receive probation. She also found that women were still more likely to receive probation as well. Toward the end of the article Freiburger looked at how incarceration terms to prison and jail sentences impacted prisin sentences more. She concluded that jail and prison sentences need to be decided separately.

Title: An Examination of the Interactions of Race and Gender on Sentencing Decisions Using a Trichotomous Dependent Variable. 
Author: Tina Freiburger
Source:  Crime & Delinquency. Feb2013, Vol. 59 Issue 1, p59-86. 28p.