TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bodenhorn,Howard
TI  - Criminal Sentencing in Nineteenth Century Pennsylvania
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14283
PY  - 2008
Y2  - August 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14283
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14283.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Howard Bodenhorn
John E. Walker Department of Economics
College of Business and Behavioral Science
201-B Sirrine Hall
Clemson University
Clemson, SC 29634
Tel: 864/656-4335
E-Mail: bodenhorn@gmail.com
AB  - How law is interpreted and enforced at a particular historical moment reflects contemporary social concerns and prejudices. This paper investigates the nature of criminal sentencing in mid-nineteenth-century Pennsylvania. It finds that extralegal factors, namely place of conviction and several personal characteristics, were important determinants of sentence length. The observed disparities in the mid-nineteenth century, however, are different than modern disparities. Instead of longer sentences, African Americans and recent immigrants tended to receive shorter sentences, whereas more affluent offenders received longer sentences. The results are consistent with other interpretations of the period as the "era of the common man."
ER  -