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52 J. Crim. L. Criminology & Police Sci. 411 (1961)
Significance of the Racial Factor in the Length of Prison Sentences

handle is hein.journals/jclc52 and id is 419 raw text is: SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RACIAL FACTOR IN THE LENGTH OF PRISON SENTENCES HENRY ALLEN BULLOCK* The author is Professor of Sociology and Chairman of Graduate Research in Texas Southern Uni- versity. He is also President of CAPRA, Inc., and a member of the Societe Internationale De Crimi- nologie. Do Negroes generally receive differential treatment by juries in the assessment of sentence? Do they receive longer sentences than whites for certain crimes, but shorter sentences for other crimes? In an attempt to discover the validity of charges that Negroes are treated differently than whites in sentencing, Professor Bullock conducted a study of 3,644 inmates in a Texas state prison. Care- ful comparisons of data were made, after controlling the influence of non-racial factors, to determine the effect of race on the length of sentence. This article reports the, findings and discusses their im- plications.-EDITOR. Sociologists have given some attention to the problem of accounting for the Negro's dispropor- tionate representation in the records of police de- partments, courts, and prisons. Many, accepting the record at face value, have sought an explana- tion on the basis of the Negro's greater exposure to the social and cultural conditions that foster criminal behavior.1 Others, more critical in their evaluation of the record, have sought an explana- tion in the inadequacy of available criminal sta- tistics. This paper represents an exploratory in- quiry growing out of the latter approach. It attempts specifically to test the significance of the racial factor in the length of assessed prison sen- tences under conditions that control many of the other factors which also appear to be influential in determining such sentences. The idea that racial discrimination exists in the administration of criminal law has been suggested indirectly through theoretical attacks upon the validity of criminal statistics and directly through field evidence charging racial discrimination at various levels of law enforcement. The theoretical attack has been largely directed against the confusions inherent in the definition of crime. One of the great barriers to adequate crime reporting has been unstable definitions of * Naomi IV. Levi served 'as a research associate in connection with the preparation of this paper. Assist- ance in the form of financial support was given by the Faculty Research Committee of Texas Southern Uni- versity. I See REm, IN A MINOR KEY (1940); McKeown, Porerty, Race, and Crime, 39 J. C~an. L. & C. 480 (1948); REcicrass, THE CRIME PROBLEM 37 (1955); BERNARD, SocrAL PROBLEMS AT MW-CEN-rURY 518 (1957); MERRILL, SOCIETY AND CULTURE 293 (1957). the kinds of behavior identified in criminal records. Some scholars have persistently located this in- stability in the area of human judgment, where perceptual qualities are refracted by social values and attitudes. An examination of the literature dealing with the concept crime reveals a con- siderable amount of confusion among scholars who have attempted to clarify this term.2 And writers have warned that interpretations and implementa- tions of the law vary widely from place to place and from time to time even within a particular jurisdiction.3 Sutherland's studies of white collar crime demonstrate that not all unlawful behavior is treated as criminal behavior; that an entire social class enjoys protection from criminal treat- ment for offenses committed in connection with their occupations and that criminologists have derived theories of criminal behavior from statis- tics loaded against the lower class and in favor of the upper.4 Sellin has also based his conception of the inadequacy of criminal statistics upon our variable attitudes toward crime and what it is. He has contended that the nature of such statistics varies with social status, social customs, and social sensitivity; that a dependable crime index cannot be derived from criminal records unless they are sufficiently free of these variations to reflect real criminality.5 2 For a summary of this type of literature, see Wilber, The Scientific Adequacy of Criminological Concepts, 28 SOCIAL FoRcEs 165 (1949). 3SuTHERLAND, PRINCIPLES OF CRIMINOLOGY 18 (1947). 4 Sutherland, Is While Collar Crime Crime?, 10 Am. Soc. Rxv. 132 (1945); Su E=iLAND, CRIME AND BusiNEss, 217 ANNALS 112 (1941). 5 Sellin, The Basis of a Crime Index, 22 J. CaIM. L. & C. 335 (1931).

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