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.
An agent-based epidemiological model of incarceration
We build an agent-based model of incarceration based on the SIS model of infectious disease propagation. Our central hypothesis is that the observed racial disparities in incarceration rates between Black and White Americans can be explained as the result of differential sentencing between the two demographic groups. We demonstrate that if incarceration can be spread through a social influence network, then even relatively small differences in sentencing can result in the large disparities in incarceration rates. Controlling for effects of transmissibility, susceptibility, and influence network structure, our model reproduces the observed large disparities in incarceration rates given the differences in sentence lengths for White and Black drug offenders in the United States without extensive parameter tuning. We further establish the suitability of the SIS model as applied to incarceration, as the observed structural patterns of recidivism are an emergent property of the model. In fact, our model shows a remarkably close correspondence with California incarceration data, without requiring any parameter tuning. This work advances efforts to combine the theories and methods of epidemiology and criminology.
PRECISION FARMING APPROACHES TO SMALL-FARM AGRICULTRUE
Precision farming implies a management strategy to increase productivity and economic returns with a reduced impact on the environment. It is based on the application of information technology to a description of variability in the field, variable-rate operations and the decisionmaking system. There are three technology levels and three strategies in the development of precision farming. Precision farming practices can be used on small farms as well as big ones, and they play a core role in rural development programs which are integrated with industry. A real-time soil spectrophotometer was developed to describe soil variability in farmers' fields, to be used in precision farming.