Victim-Based Effects on Racially Disparate Sentencing in Ohio
Scholars have argued that African-American men accused of violently victimizing whites receive especially harsh treatment in court. This thesis was tested with samples of felony defendants processed in Ohio courts before and after the implementation of sentencing guidelines. During the preguideline period only, African-American men accused of victimizing whites were less likely than other defendants to plead guilty in exchange for reduced charges and/or sentences, and African-American men incarcerated for violent crimes against whites received longer sentences than other incarcerated offenders. During the postguideline period only, by contrast, the odds of pleading guilty in exchange for reduced charges were actually higher for African-American men accused of victimizing whites. African-American male prison terms significantly declined relative to incarcerated whites from the preguideline to the postguideline period. The interaction effect of defendant-victim race was significant during the preguideline period, not significant in the postguideline period, and significantly changed over time.
Displaced discretion under Ohio sentencing guidelines
The argument that curbing judicial sentencing discretion generates more prosecutorial discretion at earlier decision points in case processing received little empirical attention beyond Miethe's (1987) before/after study of the Minnesota guidelines. This article presents an examination of whether Ohio's sentencing reform resulted in significant changes in prosecutorial decisions related to indictment severity, dropped charges, charge reductions, and overall plea bargains. The implementation of determinate sentencing guidelines corresponded with a significant yet modest increase in the likelihood of charge reductions only. Some changes also occurred in the specific effects of various defendant characteristics on some of the outcomes examined, but these changes did not uniformly result in harsher dispositions for defendants facing greater social and economic disadvantage. Similar to Miethe's observation regarding Minnesota's sentencing scheme, any increase in levels of prosecutorial discretion that might have occurred under Ohio's latest scheme had not resulted in substantive extra-legal disparities in case dispositions.
The Penalty of Death
One of the founders of the field of criminology sums up a lifetime of work on the issue of capital punishment. He shows the fallacy of the arguments for the deterrent and retributive value of the death penalty. He argues cogently and passionately for the body of evidence showing that 'abolitionist' states suffer no more capital crime than 'retentionist' ones, and that retribution is neither swift, certain nor equitable. 'This is an impressive book by an established American criminologist...A short review cannot do justice to the careful argument, backed up by detailed evidence, which is contained here. The book is readable and clear, and anyone interested in the subject should certainly refer to it.' -- Bramshill Journal, Vol 1 No 3, July 1982 '...this book will almost certainly become a standard reference work for criminologists and laymen interested in the "ultimate" punishment.' -- International Social Science Review, Spring 1983 'In the unlikely event that there is any doubt that Thorsten Sellin is the foremost scholar of capital punishment that the world has ever known, that doubt will be eliminated by perusal of his latest work.In this fact-packed little volume, more questions on penalties for murder are answered than other writings even ask' -- Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 'This book must be considered among the finest available dealing with the death penalty' -- Criminal Justice History