THE JUSTICE SYSTEM AND SENTENCING The Importance of Race in the Military

Data on incarcerated Navy and Marine Corps personnel are examined to determine the impact of offender's race on sentence length. The literature on sentencing in the civilian sector has long suggested that under certain circumstances blacks (or whites) receive unjustifiably long sentences. It is argued here that much of the variation in senate is due not just to characteristics of the offender, but also to characteristics of the sentencing process. The military forms a more state sentencing environment than the civilian setting; hence one should expect less variation due to the sentencing process. Analysis revealed that blacks and whites showed no statistically significant differences in sentence length, in both the Navy and Marine Corps. When small differences did exist. whites were usually recipients of the longer sentences .