Michael T Light
Biographic Data
| ID | 3632136 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael T Light |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael T |
| FAMILY NAME | Light |
| SIGNATURE | LIGHT M T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Wisconsin–Madison |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8757-9876 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 338 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Deportation’s Fallout: Evidence from Denmark
The Outsized Impact of Behavioral Causes of Death on Longevity in the United States: Comparing Total and per Death Years of Life Lost
How significant are behavioral causes of death—suicide, homicide, accidental poisoning, and traffic accidents—in determining how long Americans live? By “determining,” the authors mean limiting or reducing, as they are looking at factors (causes of death) that reduce an individual’s length of life. This data visualization portrays the extent to which deaths from homicide, suicide, traffic accidents, and accidental poisoning disproportionately aff…
Does Racial Bias Explain the Black-White Sentencing Gap across U.S. Courts
It is widely speculated that prejudicial attitudes and implicit biases are fundamental to understanding racial disparities in criminal punishment. Yet surprisingly little research links measures of racial bias to data on criminal court decision-making. This article fills this gap by combining multiple aggregate measures of implicit and explicit racial bias with data from U.S. federal courts to examine whether racial disparities in sentencing are …
Does Immigration Enforcement Exacerbate Racial Inequality Under the Law
Did Immigrant Arrest Rates Change During the Trump Administration? Evidence From California and Texas
Despite substantial legal and policy debates, whether immigrant arrest rates changed during the Trump presidency remains surprisingly understudied. This is partially because immigration status is rarely available in crime data. We address this gap by applying difference-in-differences (DD) and difference-in-difference-in-differences (DDD) estimations to detailed arrest data from Texas and California from 2015 to 2018. We find little evidence, des…
Citizenship, legal status, and misdemeanor justice
Although minor forms of criminal justice contact are increasingly used to identify immigration violators, little research has been conducted at the intersection of immigration and misdemeanor justice. As a result, citizenship remains undertheorized in punishment research and fundamental questions remain unanswered. In this article, we introduce the “crimmigrant” punishment framework to conceptualize the unique case processing consequences for non…
A Generational Shift: Race and the Declining Lifetime Risk of Imprisonment
Mass incarceration fundamentally altered the life course for a generation of American men, but sustained declines in imprisonment in recent years raise questions about how incarceration is shaping current generations. This study makes three primary contributions to a fuller understanding of the contemporary landscape of incarceration in the United States. First, we assess the scope of decarceration. Between 1999 and 2019, the Black male incarcera…
Noncitizen Justice: The Criminal Case Processing of Non-US Citizens in Texas and California
Immigration enforcement is increasingly dependent on local criminal justice authorities, yet basic questions on the criminal case processing of non-US citizens (documented or undocumented) in state and local jurisdictions remain unanswered. Leveraging uniquely rich case information on all felony arrests in California and Texas between 2006 and 2018, this article provides a detailed examination of the legal treatment of non-US citizens from bookin…
The Declining Significance of Race in Criminal Sentencing: Evidence from US Federal Courts
Racial inequality in sentencing has decreased substantially over the last decade. In 2009, the average sentencing difference between black and white defendants in federal court was nearly 3 yrs. By 2018, this difference was less than 6 mos. Among drug offenders over this same period, the black–white gap went from 47 mos. down to zero. Yet, despite the fact that racial inequality in the legal system remains at the fore of sociological discourse, t…
The Criminal Case Processing of Foreign Nationals in the Netherlands
Foreign nationals are increasingly encountering the criminal justice institutions of many European countries. Yet, basic questions about how they are punished within these institutions, particularly at the early stages of case processing, remain unanswered. This article combines linked case information from arrest through sentencing with interviews of Dutch judges and prosecutors to fill this gap. Our findings reveal considerable unexplained citi…
Undocumented immigration and terrorism: Is there a connection
Have Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Sentencing Declined
Blacks and Hispanics convicted of felonies are more likely than whites to receive prison sentences for their crimes, and they receive slightly longer sentences if imprisoned. Yet the majority of prior research compares sentencing decisions at a single point in time and does not give explicit attention to whether and how racial and ethnic disparities have changed. Decades of sentencing data from Minnesota, the federal courts, and a sample of large…
Segregation and Violence Reconsidered: Do Whites Benefit from Residential Segregation
Despite marked declines in black-white segregation over the past half century, there has been limited scholarly attention to the effects of increasing integration. This is a significant omission given that sociologists have long viewed residential segregation as a fundamental determinant of racial inequality, and extant research has produced inconsistent findings on the consequences of segregation for different racial groups. Using the case of vi…
How Do Criminal Courts Respond in Times of Crisis? Evidence from 9/11
How courts make decisions during national emergencies has been a key focus of legal scholarship, yet we know comparatively little about how courts respond to national crises in one of their core functions—criminal sentencing. This article addresses this gap by leveraging the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, to examine the punishment of foreign nationals before and after a national emergency. Using difference-in-difference-in-differences e…
Does Undocumented Immigration Increase Violent Crime
Despite substantial public, political, and scholarly attention to the issue of immigration and crime, we know little about the criminological consequences of undocumented immigration. As a result, fundamental questions about whether undocumented immigration increases violent crime remain unanswered. In an attempt to address this gap, we combine newly developed estimates of the unauthorized population with multiple data sources to capture the crim…
On the Weak Mortality Returns of the Prison Boom: Comparing Infant Mortality and Homicide in the Incarceration Ledger
The justifications for the dramatic expansion of the prison population in recent decades have focused on public safety. Prior research on the efficacy of incarceration offers support for such claims, suggesting that increased incarceration saves lives by reducing the prevalence of homicide. We challenge this view by arguing that the effects of mass incarceration include collateral infant mortality consequences that call into question the number o…
Undocumented Immigration, Drug Problems, and Driving Under the Influence in the United States, 1990–2014
Objectives. To examine the influence of undocumented immigration in the United States on 4 different metrics of drug and alcohol problems: drug arrests, drug overdose fatalities, driving under the influence (DUI) arrests, and DUI deaths. Methods. We combined newly developed state-level estimates of the undocumented population between 1990 and 2014 from the Center for Migration Studies with arrest data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation Unif…
The harder they fall? Sex and race/ethnic specific suicide rates in the U.S. foreclosure crisis
"Punishing the "Others: Citizenship and State Social Control in the United States and Germany
Despite ongoing debates on the continued legal significance of citizenship in a globalized world, international comparative tests of the salience of citizenship under the law have yet to be undertaken. This article combines data from US and German courts with interviews of judges from both countries to 1) estimate the punishment consequences of lacking state membership; 2) compare the sentencing gap across international contexts, and; 3) identify…
Re-examining the relationship between Latino immigration and racial/ethnic violence
The Punishment Consequences of Lacking National Membership in Germany, 1998–2010
The comparative study of immigrants’ legal rights has become a key focus of sociological inquiry in recent decades. However, research in this vein has focused primarily on the highest levels of European judiciaries. As a result, we know comparatively little about the implementation of immigrant rights in the lower courts that are charged with enforcing the legal protections of foreigners. Using prosecution data from German criminal courts between…
The Social Context of Racial Boundary Negotiations: Segregation, Hate Crime, and Hispanic Racial Identification in Metropolitan America
Michael T. Light, John Iceland Sociological Science, February 08, 2016 DOI 10.15195/v3.a4 Abstract How the influx of Hispanics is reshaping the U.S. racial landscape is a paramount question in sociology
Explaining the Gaps in White, Black, and Hispanic Violence since 1990: Accounting for Immigration, Incarceration, and Inequality
While group differences in violence have long been a key focus of sociological inquiry, we know comparatively little about the trends in criminal violence for whites, blacks, and Hispanics in recent decades. Combining geocoded death records with multiple data sources to capture the socioeconomic, demographic, and legal context of 131 of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States, this article examines the trends in racial/ethnic inequali…
Children of the Prison Boom: Mass Incarceration and the Future of American Inequality
The Home Foreclosure Crisis and Rising Suicide Rates, 2005 to 2010
Objectives. We examined the association between state-level foreclosure and suicide rates from 2005 to 2010 and considered variation in the effect of foreclosure on suicide by age. Methods. We used hybrid random- and fixed-effects models to examine the relation between state foreclosure rates and total and age-specific suicide rates from 2005 to 2010 (n = 306 state-years). Results. Net of other factors, an increase in the within-state total forec…
Does Undocumented Immigration Increase Violent Crime
Despite substantial public, political, and scholarly attention to the issue of immigration and crime, we know little about the criminological consequences of undocumented immigration. As a result, fundamental questions about whether undocumented immigration increases violent crime remain unanswered. In an attempt to address this gap, we combine newly developed estimates of the unauthorized population with multiple data sources to capture the crim…
Citizenship and Punishment: The Salience of National Membership in U.S. Criminal Courts
When compared to research on the association between immigration and crime, far less attention has been given to the relationship between immigration, citizenship, and criminal punishment. As such, several fundamental questions about how noncitizens are sanctioned and whether citizenship is a marker of stratification in U.S. courts remain unanswered. Are citizens treated differently than noncitizens-both legal and undocumented-in U.S. federal cri…
Segregation and Violence Reconsidered: Do Whites Benefit from Residential Segregation
Despite marked declines in black-white segregation over the past half century, there has been limited scholarly attention to the effects of increasing integration. This is a significant omission given that sociologists have long viewed residential segregation as a fundamental determinant of racial inequality, and extant research has produced inconsistent findings on the consequences of segregation for different racial groups. Using the case of vi…
Explaining the Gaps in White, Black, and Hispanic Violence since 1990: Accounting for Immigration, Incarceration, and Inequality
While group differences in violence have long been a key focus of sociological inquiry, we know comparatively little about the trends in criminal violence for whites, blacks, and Hispanics in recent decades. Combining geocoded death records with multiple data sources to capture the socioeconomic, demographic, and legal context of 131 of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States, this article examines the trends in racial/ethnic inequali…
The Home Foreclosure Crisis and Rising Suicide Rates, 2005 to 2010
Objectives. We examined the association between state-level foreclosure and suicide rates from 2005 to 2010 and considered variation in the effect of foreclosure on suicide by age. Methods. We used hybrid random- and fixed-effects models to examine the relation between state foreclosure rates and total and age-specific suicide rates from 2005 to 2010 (n = 306 state-years). Results. Net of other factors, an increase in the within-state total forec…
Have Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Sentencing Declined
Blacks and Hispanics convicted of felonies are more likely than whites to receive prison sentences for their crimes, and they receive slightly longer sentences if imprisoned. Yet the majority of prior research compares sentencing decisions at a single point in time and does not give explicit attention to whether and how racial and ethnic disparities have changed. Decades of sentencing data from Minnesota, the federal courts, and a sample of large…
The New Face of Legal Inequality: Noncitizens and the Long-Term Trends in Sentencing Disparities across U.S. District Courts, 1992–2009
In the wake of mass immigration from Latin America, legal scholars have shifted focus from racial to ethnic inequality under the law. A series of studies now suggest that Hispanics may be the most disadvantaged group in U.S. courts, yet this body of work has yet to fully engage the role of citizenship status. The present research examines the punishment consequences for non-U.S. citizens sentenced in federal courts between 1992 and 2009. Drawing …
Racial disparity in the wake of the Booker/Fanfan decision: An alternative analysis to the USSC's 2010 report
The harder they fall? Sex and race/ethnic specific suicide rates in the U.S. foreclosure crisis
Noncitizen Justice: The Criminal Case Processing of Non-US Citizens in Texas and California
Immigration enforcement is increasingly dependent on local criminal justice authorities, yet basic questions on the criminal case processing of non-US citizens (documented or undocumented) in state and local jurisdictions remain unanswered. Leveraging uniquely rich case information on all felony arrests in California and Texas between 2006 and 2018, this article provides a detailed examination of the legal treatment of non-US citizens from bookin…
A Generational Shift: Race and the Declining Lifetime Risk of Imprisonment
Mass incarceration fundamentally altered the life course for a generation of American men, but sustained declines in imprisonment in recent years raise questions about how incarceration is shaping current generations. This study makes three primary contributions to a fuller understanding of the contemporary landscape of incarceration in the United States. First, we assess the scope of decarceration. Between 1999 and 2019, the Black male incarcera…
"Punishing the "Others: Citizenship and State Social Control in the United States and Germany
Despite ongoing debates on the continued legal significance of citizenship in a globalized world, international comparative tests of the salience of citizenship under the law have yet to be undertaken. This article combines data from US and German courts with interviews of judges from both countries to 1) estimate the punishment consequences of lacking state membership; 2) compare the sentencing gap across international contexts, and; 3) identify…
The Social Context of Racial Boundary Negotiations: Segregation, Hate Crime, and Hispanic Racial Identification in Metropolitan America
Michael T. Light, John Iceland Sociological Science, February 08, 2016 DOI 10.15195/v3.a4 Abstract How the influx of Hispanics is reshaping the U.S. racial landscape is a paramount question in sociology
Re-examining the relationship between Latino immigration and racial/ethnic violence
On the Weak Mortality Returns of the Prison Boom: Comparing Infant Mortality and Homicide in the Incarceration Ledger
The justifications for the dramatic expansion of the prison population in recent decades have focused on public safety. Prior research on the efficacy of incarceration offers support for such claims, suggesting that increased incarceration saves lives by reducing the prevalence of homicide. We challenge this view by arguing that the effects of mass incarceration include collateral infant mortality consequences that call into question the number o…
Undocumented Immigration, Drug Problems, and Driving Under the Influence in the United States, 1990–2014
Objectives. To examine the influence of undocumented immigration in the United States on 4 different metrics of drug and alcohol problems: drug arrests, drug overdose fatalities, driving under the influence (DUI) arrests, and DUI deaths. Methods. We combined newly developed state-level estimates of the undocumented population between 1990 and 2014 from the Center for Migration Studies with arrest data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation Unif…
The Criminal Case Processing of Foreign Nationals in the Netherlands
Foreign nationals are increasingly encountering the criminal justice institutions of many European countries. Yet, basic questions about how they are punished within these institutions, particularly at the early stages of case processing, remain unanswered. This article combines linked case information from arrest through sentencing with interviews of Dutch judges and prosecutors to fill this gap. Our findings reveal considerable unexplained citi…
How Do Criminal Courts Respond in Times of Crisis? Evidence from 9/11
How courts make decisions during national emergencies has been a key focus of legal scholarship, yet we know comparatively little about how courts respond to national crises in one of their core functions—criminal sentencing. This article addresses this gap by leveraging the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, to examine the punishment of foreign nationals before and after a national emergency. Using difference-in-difference-in-differences e…
Citizenship, legal status, and misdemeanor justice
Although minor forms of criminal justice contact are increasingly used to identify immigration violators, little research has been conducted at the intersection of immigration and misdemeanor justice. As a result, citizenship remains undertheorized in punishment research and fundamental questions remain unanswered. In this article, we introduce the “crimmigrant” punishment framework to conceptualize the unique case processing consequences for non…
Undocumented immigration and terrorism: Is there a connection
Overview of: “Racial disparity in the wake of the Booker/Fanfan decision
Research Summary The U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC) released a report in March 2010 concluding that disparity in federal sentencing has increased in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in United States v. Booker (2005) and Gall v. United States (2007). In light of this USSC report, we provide an alternative set of analyses that we believe provides a more complete and informative picture of racial, ethnic, and gender disparity in feder…
Racial disparity in the wake of the Booker/Fanfan decision: An alternative analysis to the USSC's 2010 report
The Home Foreclosure Crisis and Rising Suicide Rates, 2005 to 2010
Objectives. We examined the association between state-level foreclosure and suicide rates from 2005 to 2010 and considered variation in the effect of foreclosure on suicide by age. Methods. We used hybrid random- and fixed-effects models to examine the relation between state foreclosure rates and total and age-specific suicide rates from 2005 to 2010 (n = 306 state-years). Results. Net of other factors, an increase in the within-state total forec…
The New Face of Legal Inequality: Noncitizens and the Long-Term Trends in Sentencing Disparities across U.S. District Courts, 1992–2009
In the wake of mass immigration from Latin America, legal scholars have shifted focus from racial to ethnic inequality under the law. A series of studies now suggest that Hispanics may be the most disadvantaged group in U.S. courts, yet this body of work has yet to fully engage the role of citizenship status. The present research examines the punishment consequences for non-U.S. citizens sentenced in federal courts between 1992 and 2009. Drawing …
Citizenship and Punishment: The Salience of National Membership in U.S. Criminal Courts
When compared to research on the association between immigration and crime, far less attention has been given to the relationship between immigration, citizenship, and criminal punishment. As such, several fundamental questions about how noncitizens are sanctioned and whether citizenship is a marker of stratification in U.S. courts remain unanswered. Are citizens treated differently than noncitizens-both legal and undocumented-in U.S. federal cri…
Children of the Prison Boom: Mass Incarceration and the Future of American Inequality
The Punishment Consequences of Lacking National Membership in Germany, 1998–2010
The comparative study of immigrants’ legal rights has become a key focus of sociological inquiry in recent decades. However, research in this vein has focused primarily on the highest levels of European judiciaries. As a result, we know comparatively little about the implementation of immigrant rights in the lower courts that are charged with enforcing the legal protections of foreigners. Using prosecution data from German criminal courts between…
The Social Context of Racial Boundary Negotiations: Segregation, Hate Crime, and Hispanic Racial Identification in Metropolitan America
Michael T. Light, John Iceland Sociological Science, February 08, 2016 DOI 10.15195/v3.a4 Abstract How the influx of Hispanics is reshaping the U.S. racial landscape is a paramount question in sociology
Explaining the Gaps in White, Black, and Hispanic Violence since 1990: Accounting for Immigration, Incarceration, and Inequality
While group differences in violence have long been a key focus of sociological inquiry, we know comparatively little about the trends in criminal violence for whites, blacks, and Hispanics in recent decades. Combining geocoded death records with multiple data sources to capture the socioeconomic, demographic, and legal context of 131 of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States, this article examines the trends in racial/ethnic inequali…
Undocumented Immigration, Drug Problems, and Driving Under the Influence in the United States, 1990–2014
Objectives. To examine the influence of undocumented immigration in the United States on 4 different metrics of drug and alcohol problems: drug arrests, drug overdose fatalities, driving under the influence (DUI) arrests, and DUI deaths. Methods. We combined newly developed state-level estimates of the undocumented population between 1990 and 2014 from the Center for Migration Studies with arrest data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation Unif…
The harder they fall? Sex and race/ethnic specific suicide rates in the U.S. foreclosure crisis
"Punishing the "Others: Citizenship and State Social Control in the United States and Germany
Despite ongoing debates on the continued legal significance of citizenship in a globalized world, international comparative tests of the salience of citizenship under the law have yet to be undertaken. This article combines data from US and German courts with interviews of judges from both countries to 1) estimate the punishment consequences of lacking state membership; 2) compare the sentencing gap across international contexts, and; 3) identify…
Re-examining the relationship between Latino immigration and racial/ethnic violence
Does Undocumented Immigration Increase Violent Crime
Despite substantial public, political, and scholarly attention to the issue of immigration and crime, we know little about the criminological consequences of undocumented immigration. As a result, fundamental questions about whether undocumented immigration increases violent crime remain unanswered. In an attempt to address this gap, we combine newly developed estimates of the unauthorized population with multiple data sources to capture the crim…
On the Weak Mortality Returns of the Prison Boom: Comparing Infant Mortality and Homicide in the Incarceration Ledger
The justifications for the dramatic expansion of the prison population in recent decades have focused on public safety. Prior research on the efficacy of incarceration offers support for such claims, suggesting that increased incarceration saves lives by reducing the prevalence of homicide. We challenge this view by arguing that the effects of mass incarceration include collateral infant mortality consequences that call into question the number o…
Have Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Sentencing Declined
Blacks and Hispanics convicted of felonies are more likely than whites to receive prison sentences for their crimes, and they receive slightly longer sentences if imprisoned. Yet the majority of prior research compares sentencing decisions at a single point in time and does not give explicit attention to whether and how racial and ethnic disparities have changed. Decades of sentencing data from Minnesota, the federal courts, and a sample of large…
Segregation and Violence Reconsidered: Do Whites Benefit from Residential Segregation
Despite marked declines in black-white segregation over the past half century, there has been limited scholarly attention to the effects of increasing integration. This is a significant omission given that sociologists have long viewed residential segregation as a fundamental determinant of racial inequality, and extant research has produced inconsistent findings on the consequences of segregation for different racial groups. Using the case of vi…
How Do Criminal Courts Respond in Times of Crisis? Evidence from 9/11
How courts make decisions during national emergencies has been a key focus of legal scholarship, yet we know comparatively little about how courts respond to national crises in one of their core functions—criminal sentencing. This article addresses this gap by leveraging the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, to examine the punishment of foreign nationals before and after a national emergency. Using difference-in-difference-in-differences e…
The Criminal Case Processing of Foreign Nationals in the Netherlands
Foreign nationals are increasingly encountering the criminal justice institutions of many European countries. Yet, basic questions about how they are punished within these institutions, particularly at the early stages of case processing, remain unanswered. This article combines linked case information from arrest through sentencing with interviews of Dutch judges and prosecutors to fill this gap. Our findings reveal considerable unexplained citi…
Undocumented immigration and terrorism: Is there a connection
The Declining Significance of Race in Criminal Sentencing: Evidence from US Federal Courts
Racial inequality in sentencing has decreased substantially over the last decade. In 2009, the average sentencing difference between black and white defendants in federal court was nearly 3 yrs. By 2018, this difference was less than 6 mos. Among drug offenders over this same period, the black–white gap went from 47 mos. down to zero. Yet, despite the fact that racial inequality in the legal system remains at the fore of sociological discourse, t…
A Generational Shift: Race and the Declining Lifetime Risk of Imprisonment
Mass incarceration fundamentally altered the life course for a generation of American men, but sustained declines in imprisonment in recent years raise questions about how incarceration is shaping current generations. This study makes three primary contributions to a fuller understanding of the contemporary landscape of incarceration in the United States. First, we assess the scope of decarceration. Between 1999 and 2019, the Black male incarcera…
Noncitizen Justice: The Criminal Case Processing of Non-US Citizens in Texas and California
Immigration enforcement is increasingly dependent on local criminal justice authorities, yet basic questions on the criminal case processing of non-US citizens (documented or undocumented) in state and local jurisdictions remain unanswered. Leveraging uniquely rich case information on all felony arrests in California and Texas between 2006 and 2018, this article provides a detailed examination of the legal treatment of non-US citizens from bookin…
Did Immigrant Arrest Rates Change During the Trump Administration? Evidence From California and Texas
Despite substantial legal and policy debates, whether immigrant arrest rates changed during the Trump presidency remains surprisingly understudied. This is partially because immigration status is rarely available in crime data. We address this gap by applying difference-in-differences (DD) and difference-in-difference-in-differences (DDD) estimations to detailed arrest data from Texas and California from 2015 to 2018. We find little evidence, des…
Citizenship, legal status, and misdemeanor justice
Although minor forms of criminal justice contact are increasingly used to identify immigration violators, little research has been conducted at the intersection of immigration and misdemeanor justice. As a result, citizenship remains undertheorized in punishment research and fundamental questions remain unanswered. In this article, we introduce the “crimmigrant” punishment framework to conceptualize the unique case processing consequences for non…
Criminology (22 works) · Political science (20 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis (17 works) · Law (15 works) · Psychology (15 works) · Crime Patterns and Interventions (14 works) · Immigration (12 works) · Demographic economics (11 works) · Economics (11 works)