Leymon 13
population per 1000 white, Hispanic prison population per 1000 Hispanic, the ratio of black to white
imprisonment rates per 1000 and the ratio of Hispanic to white imprisonment rates per 1000, as well as
two of the independent variables, parole violators and new commitments to prison per 1000 was obtained
from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (1974-2003)
3
. In addition to new commitments and parole violators
returned, other independent variables include data from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (1996), which
provided data for the creation of the variables for presumptive and voluntary guidelines. The FBI’s
Uniform Crime Report (UCR) (1974-2003)
4
supplied violent crime
5
and drug crime arrests per 1000
6
and
data from US Census (1974-2003)
7
included percent African-American, percent Hispanic, percent white
and the total population for each state. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1974-2003) supplied
information to construct the data for unemployment rates, while the U.S. Bureau of the Census (2004)
provided the data for poverty rates. The independent variables included in this study have been shown to
be significantly associated with imprisonment rates (Western and Pettit, 2005; Celesta, 1997;
Steffenmeiser and Demuth, 2000).
There are two important notes regarding the variables for sentencing guidelines. First, the dependent
variable is imprisonment rates per 1000 and does not include county or local jail populations. Therefore,
the dependent variables only consist of individuals sentenced to more than one year. As a result, any
effects that guidelines may have will not take effect for at least one year. To facilitate this “lag effect”,
guidelines were coded one year after their establishment (e.g. if the law was passed in 1980 for a given
state, that state was coded for the specific type of sentencing guideline for the year 1981). Second, the
3
Data for the years of 1974 to 1983 is available in the yearly publication: Prisoners in State and Federal Institutions on
December 31, 1974 (through 1983). Data for the years of 1984 to 1998 is available in the yearly publication: Correctional
Populations in the United States, 1984 (through 1998). Data for the years of 1999 to 2003 is available in the yearly
publication: Prisoners, 1999 (through 2003). All three publications are produced and printed by the U.S. Bureau of Justice
Statistics (see Citations). Rates per 1000 for each variable was computed by taking the raw number of prisoners for each
state by year cell provided by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and dividing by state population per 1000 total, white,
African American, or Hispanic provided by the U.S. Bureau of the Census (see Citations) to produce the appropriate rates.
The ratio of black to white imprisonment rate and Hispanic to white imprisonment rate was calculated by taking the rate
for black imprisonment and then Hispanic imprisonment and dividing by the white imprisonment rate.
4
Data from the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) is available in print and online from the U.S. Dept. of Justice, Federal Bureau
of Investigation and is produced and printed yearly (see Citations).
5
Violent crime arrests represent the Uniform Crime Reports indexed crimes and include the offenses of murder, forcible
rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.
6
In this paper “violent crime” and “drug crime” rates refers to violent crime and drug crime arrests rates recorded by the
Uniform Crime Reports for each year (see Citations).
7
Data from the census is available online at census.gov maintained by the U.S. Bureau of the Census and was complied
from both census data and population estimates (see Citations).
Convention