Crack-ing Down on Black Drug Offenders?: Testing for Interactions between Offender Race, Drug Type, and Statute Charged in Federal Drug Sentences

The interaction between a defendant's race and type of drug has long been argued to affect sentencing for drug offenses. Many assert that blacks receive harsher sentences than do whites merely because of harsher penalties associated with specific drugs. This argument is particularly strong in federal sentencing, where large differences exist in the specified sanctions for the various types of drugs. We analyze the relationship among a defendant's race, sentencing strategy, and drug type net of other theoretically relevant factors. Our findings question previous assumptions regarding this relationship, suggesting that a defendant's race “conditions” the effects of drug and other factors differently from one sentencing strategy to the next.