The purpose of this study was to determine whether workgroup racial composition is related to sentence outcomes generally, and racial differences in sentencing in particular, across federal districts. This collection contains information on federal court district characteristics. Data include information about the social context, court context, and diversity of the courtroom workgroup for 90 federal judicial districts provided by 50 judicial district context variables.

Race and criminal sentencing research typically considers only the race of the criminal offender, crime victim, and general population to assess whether and how race influences sentencing and outcomes. Invisible in most accounts are the racial identities and group relations of court workers whose decisions ultimately shape case outcomes, and thus the race relations of sentencing. The purpose of this study was to determine whether workgroup racial composition is related to sentence outcomes generally, and racial differences in sentencing in particular, across federal districts.

This collection contains information on federal court district characteristics. Data include information about the social context, court context, and diversity of the courtroom workgroup for 90 federal judicial districts. Information on the social context of the judicial district was compiled using information from the 2000 Census and the 2000 Uniform Crime Reports (available through the FedStats system). Information specific to the court context including data on case processing, court workload information, demographics of each district, arrest data for each district, caseload, criminal case processing time, and proportion of district caseload for different types of crimes was obtained through the Federal Court Management Statistics and the Judicial Business of the United States Courts for 2000 and 2001, which are compiled annually by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. Information on the racial demographics of federal court workgroups was collected by the principal investigators. Publicly available data on judge demographics and background was found at the Federal Judicial Center’s Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, information on the demographics of federal prosecutors was provided from FedStats, and data on the demographics of federal probation officers and defenders was provided by the Administrative Offices of the United States Trial Courts.

The dataset contains 50 judicial district context variables. More specifically, variables include district, population, proportion male/female judges in district, proportion White/Black/Hispanic judges in district, proportion male/female probation officers in district, proportion White/Black/Hispanic probation officers in district, proportion male/female prosecutors in district, proportion White/Black/Hispanic prosecutors in district, proportion male/female defenders in district, proportion White/Black/Hispanic defenders in district, proportion district population White/Black/Hispanic, departure rate for district, proportion district under 18 years of age, proportion of district over 65 years of age, proportion of district unemployed, proportion of district below poverty level, average filing time for district, violent offense rate for district, average felony finding per judge, proportion C felony finding, proportion F felony finding, proportion Black defendant for district. Other variables include Black workgroup (judge and prosecutors only), Black judge index, Black probation index, Black prosecutor index, Black defender index, Black workgroup index-original (judge + prosecutor), proportion of judges in district appointed by democratic/republican presidents, indicator that district is in southern region, female workgroup, full Black workgroup (judge, prosecutor, probation, and defender), and full workgroup index (judge, prosecutor, probation, defender).

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AVAILABLE. This study is freely available to the general public.