Black Elite Decision Making
The Case of Trial Judges
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6230105 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Thomas M Uhlman (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1978 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 884 |
| Publication date | 1978-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0092-5853 • E-ISSN: 1540-5907 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2110596 |
| OpenAlex | W2322583517 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 31 |
| References cited | 3 |
After decades of struggle to broaden black political, economic, and social leadership in the United States, an important question concerning this effort remains essentially unanswered. Given authority, have black elites responded differently than their white counterparts? This paper presents the first extensive study of black elite decision making. The behavior of 16 black trial court judges is the principal focus of analysis. During a six-year period, these judges tried and, if found guilty, sentenced more than 5,000 defendants in a major urban trial court. Their decisions, both individually and as a racial group, are contrasted to similar decisions handed down to over 18,000 felony defendants by 75 white judges. Particular attention is directed to both the relative harshness of these decisions and, incorporating information on defendant race, intraand inter-racial differences in defendant treatment. The data reveal that as a group black judges establish sanctioning patterns only marginally different from those of their white colleagues. These minor race-related disparities stand in marked contrast to individual judicial behavior which is more strongly associated with case outcome. While perhaps drawn from a more traditional black legal establishment, by their decisions black judges display behavioral diversity unrelated to their common racial background
Criminology · Diversity (politics · Elite · Period (music · Political science · Politics · Principal (computer security · Race (biology · Sociology · White (mutation · Gender Studies · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems · Legal and Constitutional Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology
Institutional Dynamics on the U.S. Court of Appeals
Blame based on one's name? Extralegal disparities in criminal conviction and sentencing
Tackling selection bias in sentencing data analysis
U.S. District Court Judicial Diversity
The Many colors of crime
Judges' Race and Judicial Decision Making
Judges’ characteristics and sentencing in Hong Kong
Right to Privacy in the Federal District Courts
Judicial diversity and sentencing disparity across U.S. District Courts
Racial discrimination in the criminal justice system
Gender, race, and formal court decision-making outcomes
Judges' Unequal Contributions to Extralegal Disparities in Imprisonment
The Multilevel Context of Criminal Sentencing
Sentencing
Federal Sentencing as a Complex Collaborative Process
Social Background and the Sentencing Behavior of Judges
The Voting Behavior of Minority Judges in the U.S. Courts of Appeals
The Sentencing Decisions of Black and White Judges
Executive Branch Socialization and Deference on the U.S. Supreme Court
The Diversification of the Federal Bench
Representation on the Courts? The Effects of Trial Judges’ Sex and Race
From simplicity to complexity
Partisan Politics
Do Black Judges Make a Difference
Descriptive Representation and Judicial Outcomes in Multiethnic Societies
Does Racial Balance in Workforce Representation Yield Equal Justice? Race Relations of Sentencing in Federal Court Organizations
Diversifying State Supreme Courts
The Governance of Trial Judges
Demography of the Legal Profession and Racial Disparities in Sentencing
With All Deliberate Speed
Exploring the origin of sentencing disparities in the Crown Court
| Unique citing works | 31 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,72 |
| Citation span | 1983 - 2025 (43) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 31 |