S. prisons and jails Bureau of justice statistics [BJS], 2007), where they are overrepresented relative to other populations. For instance, there are 3,042 black male inmates per 100,000 black males in the United States, compared to 1,261 Hispanic male inmates per 100,000 Hispanic males, and 487 white male inmates per 100,000 white males (BJS, 2007). Today, black defendants serve as much time in federal prison for drug offenses as white defendants serve for violent offenses-a result largely attributed to biases in federal statutory penalties for offenses involving crack versus powder cocaine (Mauer and King, 2007a). Understanding why, how, and under what contexts defendant race affects sentencing decisions is crucial to addressing such disparate outcomes. .
Since the early 20th century, scholars have grappled with questions about the existence of racially discriminatory case processing practices and the potential for differential criminal sentences being imposed on racial and ethnic minorities. Early research on the role of race and ethnicity in criminal sentencing was more descriptive than theoretical. The methodologies involved in early studies were weak, and when theoretical explanations were offered, they often entailed unsophisticated notions of individual prejudice and racial discrimination. For example, Thorsten Sellin (1935) conducted simple comparisons of the average length of sentences given to black, native-born and foreign-born white male prisoners within very broad offense categories. Sellin claimed that the data revealed "the marked influence of race and nationality prejudice in the administration of justice" (p. 212). He concluded that, in light of the prejudice against blacks and foreign born within the society at large, "it would be denying to the judge the ordinary attributes of human nature to assume that he could render justice free from all preconceptions" (ibid.
