Punishment: White and Nonwhite

Durkheimian, Marxist, and Weberian theories provide contrasting views of the influences of the social structure of areas and communities on law and the legal process. In light of these theories, we examine how various aspects of community social structure differentially affect criminal punishments administered to whites and nonwhites. Using county-level data from the state of Washington, we regress white and nonwhite rates of imprisonment on measures of crime and arrest rates, county social structure, and court workload. This analysis indicates that nonwhites-but not whites-are particularly likely to be sentenced to prison in urbanized counties and in counties with relatively large minority populations. We conclude by presenting material from interviews with justice officials which sheds light on the perceptual and political processes that link structural conditions to patterns of criminal punishment. Despite extensive research in the sociology of law and justice, the relationship between social stratification and criminal punishment is poorly understood. Sociological theories agree that criminal law is a reflection of social structure, that it maintains and preserves political and economic order. But theories differ in their explanations of how law and the legal process-that is, law enforcement agencies, the courts, and correctional institutions-are influenced by the social structure of areas and communities. Durkheimian theorists reason that criminal law and the legal process are reactive, punishing individuals in relation to the importance of the laws and norms they violate. Furthermore, social structure influences law and its enforcement by creating conditions in which crime and other forms of deviance flourish. In contrast, conflict and Marxist theorists assert that punishments are meted out in relation to levels of economic and political inequality. According to these theories, law is an instrument used by ruling elites or the state to control the poor and powerless. Finally, Weberian theorists argue that the form of law changes in relation to the degree of bureaucratic organization within areas. Those areas and communities characterized by extensive public bureaucracies are likely to impose legal punishments according to universalistic rules of criminal procedure. However, areas where legal systems are not bureaucratically organized are more likely to impose punishments according to informal criteria and particularistic rules-of-thumb perpetuated by justice officials and social tradition. The present study is concerned with the relationship between punishment and social structure, and with whether there are significant racial differences in the influence of social