scholarly journals Complicating Race

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda M. Petersen
Keyword(s):  
Facial Feature ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Sentence Length ◽  
Facial Features ◽  
Racial Categories ◽  
Black Females ◽  
Focal Concerns ◽  
Relevant Variables ◽  
Focal Concerns Perspective ◽  
Sentencing Outcomes

Much research on race and sentencing utilizes broad racial categories to estimate the effect of race on sentencing outcomes; however, more nuanced conceptualizations of race have begun to appear in the literature. Specifically, a small but growing body of literature has assessed the role of discrimination based on Black stereotypicality of facial features, or Afrocentric facial feature bias, on sentencing outcomes for convicted males. By using Department of Corrections data from Black females and males incarcerated in Oregon, paired with experimentally derived facial feature ratings, this study extends past research by conducting both sex and race analyses in a new locale. These analyses are theoretically contextualized in feature-trait stereotyping and the focal concerns perspective—two previously unrelated literatures. The regression of sentence length on Afrocentric facial features, other extralegal factors, and legally relevant factors suggests that Afrocentric facial features do not explain sentence length for females. Afrocentricity predicts sentence length for males in the univariate and extralegal models, but significance is diminished with the inclusion of legally relevant variables. In interactional models, the sentence lengths of Black females and males do not vary in relation to one another either before or after the inclusion of legal factors. These findings are discussed in light of sentencing mechanisms in the state of Oregon, possible stereotype bias at earlier stages in the court process, and the racialized nature of offense histories and seriousness ratings.

Analyzing Variation in Prior Record Penalties Across Conviction Offenses

2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (7) ◽  
pp. 831-855 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Cassidy ◽  
Jason Rydberg
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Length Distribution ◽  
Criminal History ◽  
Sentence Length ◽  
Empirical Examination ◽  
Focal Concerns ◽  
Prior Record ◽  
Conditional Sentence ◽  
Focal Concerns Perspective ◽  
The Impact

The focal concerns perspective suggests that criminal history and the nature of the offense interact to influence judicial assessments of community threat, yet this question has not been subject to systematic empirical examination. Drawing on 4 years of data (2007-2010) from the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing ( N = 75,676), we utilize linear quantile mixed models (LQMM) to examine the impact of prior record on the conditional distribution of sentence lengths across violent, property, drug, and sex offenders, controlling for the effects of important individual and judicial district-level covariates. The results indicate that prior record penalties differ both between and within conviction offense types across the conditional sentence length distribution. Substantive, theoretical, and methodological implications are discussed.

An Examination of the Impacts of Gender, Race, and Ethnicity on the Judicial Processing of Offenders in Family Violence Cases

2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (13) ◽  
pp. 1663-1697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina L. Freiburger ◽  
Danielle Romain
Keyword(s):  
Family Violence ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Ethnic Disparities ◽  
Sentence Length ◽  
Pretrial Release ◽  
Focal Concerns ◽  
White Offenders ◽  
Black Defendants ◽  
Focal Concerns Perspective ◽  
To Receive

Using the focal concerns perspective, the present study examined possible gender, race, and ethnic disparities on judges’ pretrial release, incarceration, and sentence length decisions in family violence cases. The results indicate that males were more likely to receive an order of bail (as opposed to release on own recognizance), received higher bail amounts, were less likely to make bail, were more likely to receive prison opposed to jail, and were incarcerated for significantly longer periods of time than women. Hispanic defendants were more likely than White defendants to receive higher bail amounts and were more likely to be detained until sentencing. Black defendants, on the other hand, were more likely to receive prison as opposed to jail than White offenders.

Sentencing Outcomes in U.S. District Courts

2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Travis W. Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
Sentence Length ◽  
District Courts ◽  
Current Analysis ◽  
Focal Concerns ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Extralegal Factors ◽  
Focal Concerns Theory ◽  
Sentencing Outcomes

Numerous studies have examined the influence of offender characteristics on sentencing outcomes, yet little attention has been afforded to offenders’ educational attainment. The focal concerns theory provides reason to suspect that greater educational attainment may insulate offenders from the effects of criminal stereotypes linked to extralegal factors, including race/ethnicity, age, and sex. The current analysis employs a sample of 115,674 federal offenders to test this assumption on the in/out and sentence length decisions. Results of the in/out models demonstrate a general pattern where the effects of several extralegal factors (i.e., race, ethnicity, age, sex, and detention) are reduced, and in some cases fully moderated, by offenders’ educational attainment. This pattern, however, is not apparent during the sentence length decision.

County-Level Context and Sentence Lengths for Black, Latinx, and White Individuals Sentenced to Prison: A Multi-Level Assessment

2021 ◽  
pp. 088740342110218
Author(s):  
Katherine A. Durante
Keyword(s):  
Hierarchical Linear Modeling ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
County Level ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Linear Modeling ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Focal Concerns ◽  
Relevant Variables ◽  
Focal Concerns Perspective ◽  
Racial Ethnic

This article examines the relationship between race, ethnicity, county-level contextual variables, and sentence lengths for Black, Latinx, and White individuals sentenced to prison. Hierarchical linear modeling is used to examine the focal concerns perspective, the racial/ethnic threat thesis, socioeconomic inequality across racial/ethnic groups, political climate, and individual-level factors and sentence lengths. Data come from the National Corrections Reporting Program and other sources to examine sentences for over 500,000 individuals admitted to U.S. prisons between 2015 and 2017, from 751 counties. Results indicate that Black and Latinx individuals receive longer sentences than their White counterparts, even after controlling for relevant variables. The racial/ethnic threat thesis is not supported. Black individuals are sentenced longer than their White counterparts in counties with larger shares of Republican voters. Findings indicate that race and ethnicity continue to be salient predictors of punishment, with Black and Latinx individuals facing harsher outcomes than their White counterparts.

scholarly journals Facial Feature Model for a Portrait Video Stylization

Symmetry ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongxue Liang ◽  
Kyoungju Park ◽  
Przemyslaw Krompiec
Keyword(s):  
Facial Feature ◽  
Feature Model ◽  
Facial Features ◽  
Outer Face ◽  
Flow Estimation ◽  
Photorealistic Rendering ◽  
Stroke Models ◽  
The Face ◽  
Face Contour ◽  
Human Faces

With the advent of the deep learning method, portrait video stylization has become more popular. In this paper, we present a robust method for automatically stylizing portrait videos that contain small human faces. By extending the Mask Regions with Convolutional Neural Network features (R-CNN) with a CNN branch which detects the contour landmarks of the face, we divided the input frame into three regions: the region of facial features, the region of the inner face surrounded by 36 face contour landmarks, and the region of the outer face. Besides keeping the facial features region as it is, we used two different stroke models to render the other two regions. During the non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) of the animation video, we combined the deformable strokes and optical flow estimation between adjacent frames to follow the underlying motion coherently. The experimental results demonstrated that our method could not only effectively reserve the small and distinct facial features, but also follow the underlying motion coherently.

HUMAN FACE RECOGNITION FROM A SINGLE FRONT VIEW

1992 ◽  
Vol 06 (04) ◽  
pp. 571-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHING-WEN CHEN ◽  
CHUNG-LIN HUANG
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Active Contour Model ◽  
Facial Feature ◽  
Recognition System ◽  
Facial Features ◽  
Human Face Recognition ◽  
Front View ◽  
Deformable Template ◽  
Face Recognition System ◽  
Feature Values

This paper presents a face recognition system which can identify the unknown identity effectively using the front-view facial features. In front-view facial feature extractions, we can capture the contours of eyes and mouth by the deformable template model because of their analytically describable shapes. However, the shapes of eyebrows, nostrils and face are difficult to model using a deformable template. We extract them by using the active contour model (snake). After the contours of all facial features have been captured, we calculate effective feature values from these extracted contours and construct databases for unknown identities classification. In the database generation phase, 12 models are photographed, and feature vectors are calculated for each portrait. In the identification phase if any one of these 12 persons has his picture taken again, the system can recognize his identity.

AN EFFICIENT APPROACH FOR FACE DETECTION AND FACIAL FEATURE LOCATION USING PRUNE-AND-SEARCH TECHNIQUE

2004 ◽  
Vol 18 (06) ◽  
pp. 987-1005 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHIN-CHEN CHANG ◽  
YUAN-HUI YU
Keyword(s):  
Face Detection ◽  
Facial Feature ◽  
Facial Features ◽  
Base Line ◽  
Human Face ◽  
Feature Location ◽  
Search Technique ◽  
Efficient Approach ◽  
Human Face Detection ◽  
Geometric Knowledge

This paper proposes an efficient approach for human face detection and exact facial features location in a head-and-shoulder image. This method searches for the eye pair candidate as a base line by using the characteristic of the high intensity contrast between the iris and the sclera. To discover other facial features, the algorithm uses geometric knowledge of the human face based on the obtained eye pair candidate. The human face is finally verified with these unclosed facial features. Due to the merits of applying the Prune-and-Search and simple filtering techniques, we have shown that the proposed method indeed achieves very promising performance of face detection and facial feature location.

Federal Sentencing Guidelines and United States v. Booker: Social Context and Sentencing Disparity

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey S. Nowacki
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sentence Length ◽  
Sentencing Guidelines ◽  
Aggregate Level ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Federal Sentencing Guidelines ◽  
Federal Sentencing ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Sentencing Outcomes

The United States v. Booker decision rendered Federal Sentencing Guidelines advisory rather than mandatory. In the context of this decision, this study examines both the direct influence of aggregate-level political, community, and administrative variables on sentencing outcomes, and the way that such characteristics might contextualize individual-level predictors. Using multi-level regression techniques, this study examines the role of aggregate-level variables on sentence length decisions across four distinct time periods. Moreover, this article also examines whether aggregate-level variables condition the effects of race/ethnicity on sentencing outcomes. Whereas the direct effects of aggregate-level variables on sentencing outcomes are generally limited to political climate effects, there is evidence that political climate and other aggregate-level measures contextualize individual-level race/ethnicity effects. Future research should seek to better understand the specific mechanisms behind these relationships.

A Focal Concerns Perspective on Prosecutorial Decision Making in Cases of Intimate Partner Stalking

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 733-748
Author(s):  
Patrick Q. Brady ◽  
Bradford W. Reyns
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Domestic Violence ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Additional Insight ◽  
Focal Concerns ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
History Of ◽  
Focal Concerns Perspective ◽  
Stalking Victims

Despite millions of stalking victims contacting the police each year, suspects are rarely arrested or prosecuted. While prosecutors are ultimately the gatekeepers to holding defendants accountable, few studies have examined the factors influencing charging decisions in stalking cases. Using the focal concerns perspective, this study analyzed 5 years of domestic violence and stalking case outcomes in Rhode Island. Findings indicated that prosecutors were more likely to prosecute stalking cases when defendants evoked fear in the victim and pursued victims in public. The decision to prosecute stalking versus other domestic violence–related charges was motivated by the location of the offense and the defendant’s history of physical abuse toward the victim. Neither extralegal factors nor characteristics of blameworthiness or suspect culpability influenced prosecutorial decision making. Findings underscore the legal complexities of stalking and suggest the need for additional insight on prosecutorial perspectives and strategies to articulate the fear standard in stalking cases.

Disparities in Women’s Prison Sentences: Exploring the Nexus Between Motherhood, Drug Offense, and Sentence Length

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 420-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahram Cho ◽  
Melinda Tasca
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Incarcerated Women ◽  
Sentence Length ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Drug Offenders ◽  
Focal Concerns ◽  
Drug Offense ◽  
Report Data ◽  
Women's Prison ◽  
Self Report Data

Drawing upon focal concerns and familial paternalism frameworks, we explore the effects of motherhood, various maternal indicators, and type of offense on prison sentences using official and self-report data on 419 incarcerated women in the United States. Results revealed that drug offenders were sentenced more leniently than other offenders, whereas mothers were not sentenced differently from women without children. Mothers who lived with their children received shorter prison terms than mothers who were absent prior to arrest. This study fills gaps in knowledge on discretion in punishment in light of growing rates of female imprisonment.

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