[ColdNoMore]

Originally Posted by ALadysMom

Do you have a source for “ privileged whites are given much lighter sentences or let off...for the same things in which blacks are prosecuted & incarcerated?”

Your link to the Innocence Project does not prove your point since your point was how many of each race are “let off”(not charged or simply not arrested but GUILTY of what?) or are “given lighter sentences (again, how many of each race get what sentence for exactly the same crime, in the same jurisdiction and have exactly the same criminal record/rapshee?)

Arrest, Charging with an Offense & Sentencing all occur prior to the Innocence Project ever reviewing the case.

Yep...but more like sources (plural).

Here's but a couple of examples.

If you really want to learn more (and I hope you do), there's lots more studies in PDF...that can't be posted here.

I strongly encourage yours (and others)...further education.


Sentencing different for blacks (poke here)

Key Findings

Consistent with its previous reports, the Commission found that sentence length continues to be associated with some demographic factors. In particular, after controlling for a wide variety of sentencing factors, the Commission found:

Black male offenders continued to receive longer sentences than similarly situated White male offenders. Black male offenders received sentences on average 19.1 percent longer than similarly situated White male offenders during the Post-Report period (fiscal years 2012-2016), as they had for the prior four periods studied. The differences in sentence length remained relatively unchanged compared to the Post-Gall period.

Non-government sponsored departures and variances appear to contribute significantly to the difference in sentence length between Black male and White male offenders. Black male offenders were 21.2 percent less likely than White male offenders to receive a non-government sponsored downward departure or variance during the Post-Report period.

Furthermore, when Black male offenders did receive a non-government sponsored departure or variance, they received sentences 16.8 percent longer than White male offenders who received a non-government sponsored departure or variance. In contrast, there was a 7.9 percent difference in sentence length between Black male and White male offenders who received sentences within the applicable sentencing guidelines range, and there was no statistically significant difference in sentence length between Black male and White male offenders who received a substantial assistance departure.

Violence in an offender’s criminal history does not appear to account for any of the demographic differences in sentencing. Black male offenders received sentences on average 20.4 percent longer than similarly situated White male offenders, accounting for violence in an offender’s past in fiscal year 2016, the only year for which such data is available. This figure is almost the same as the 20.7 percent difference without accounting for past violence. Thus, violence in an offender’s criminal history does not appear to contribute to the sentence imposed to any extent beyond its contribution to the offender’s criminal history score determined under the sentencing guidelines.

Punishment for racial perceptions (click here)

Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies

Whites misjudge how much crime is committed by African Americans and Latinos.

White Americans overestimate the proportion of crime committed by people of color, and associate people of color with criminality. For example, white respondents in a 2010 survey overestimated the actual share of burglaries, illegal drug sales, and juvenile crime committed by African Americans by 20-30%. In addition, implicit bias research has uncovered widespread and deep-seated tendencies among whites – including criminal justice practitioners – to associate blacks and Latinos with criminality.

Researchers have shown that white Americans who more strongly associate crime with people of color are more likely to support punitive criminal justice policies. When individuals believe that those who commit crime are similar to them, they more readily reflect on the underlying circumstances of the crime and respond with empathy and mercy. But when people perceive a racial gap between themselves and those who commit crime, they are less compassionate and react instead with anger and outrage.