Expanding Our Understanding of Focal Concerns: Alternative Sentences, Race, and ‘Salvageability'

Research on when alternatives to incarceration are available – and for whom – is underdeveloped. In this study we introduce the concept of “salvageability” as a fourth focal concern guiding the decisions of court actors. In assessing salvageability, actors must consider the casual reasons behind offenders’ criminal involvement and the extent to which those causes can be ameliorated through rehabilitative programming. This process of causal attribution likely exacerbates racial disparity in sentences. We test whether offender race, gender, and prior histories of substance use affect assessments of salvageability as indicated by prosecutor decisions to pre-screen offenders for admittance into an intensive rehabilitation alternative sentence in Pennsylvania using linked data from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing and the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Results suggest that black offenders are substantially less likely to be referred for the rehabilitative program even if that referral would be an upward departure from a guidelines-conforming sentence.

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Work Title Expanding Our Understanding of Focal Concerns: Alternative Sentences, Race, and ‘Salvageability'
Access
Open Access
Creators
  1. Miranda Galvin
  2. Jeffery T Ulmer
Keyword
  1. Alternative sentences
  2. Disparity
  3. Drug treatment
  4. Sentencing
  5. Focal concerns
License In Copyright (Rights Reserved)
Work Type Article
Publisher
  1. Justice Quarterly
Publication Date August 12, 2022
Publisher Identifier (DOI)
  1. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2021.1954234
Deposited May 31, 2023

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Version 1
published

  • Created
  • Added Galvin_and_Ulmer_2022_JQ.pdf
  • Added Creator Miranda Galvin
  • Added Creator Jeffery T Ulmer
  • Published
  • Updated Keyword, Publisher Identifier (DOI), Publication Date Show Changes
    Keyword
    • Alternative sentences, Disparity, Drug treatment, Sentencing, Focal concerns
    Publisher Identifier (DOI)
    • https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2021.1954234
    Publication Date
    • 2022-09-01
    • 2022-08-12
  • Updated