Whether punishment promotes or deters future criminal activity by the convicted offender is a key public policy concern …. Longer prison sentences further isolate offenders from the legitimate labor force and may promote the formation of criminal … networks in prison. On the other hand, greater initial punishment may have a deterrence effect on the individual being punished …

towards defendants of their own race during the guilt-innocence decision. In the sentencing phase, we find in-group bias in … identifies such opposing effects of bias within the same decision sequence. Regarding overall racial bias, we document that … minorities are more likely to get convicted, and that they are given stiffer punishment, conditional on conviction. We find only …