Court communities in local context: a multilevel analysis of felony sentencing in South Carolina

This study examines county-level influences on sentencing practices in South Carolina, a state with a sentencing structure that is different from many of the jurisdictions that have been the focus of recent county-level studies. Using multilevel models, we examined the impact that changes in socioeconomic disadvantage, changes in crime rates, the county political makeup, and county caseload had on incarceration and expected sentence length determinations. For the incarceration decision, worsening socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with a modest increase in the likelihood of incarceration in a county while counties with heavier caseloads were slightly less likely to incarcerate offenders. None of the county-level indicators were significant for the sentence length decision. The results reveal relatively small levels of variation in outcomes across counties, suggesting that South Carolina court communities are largely characterized by similarities, perhaps due to the state's legal culture characteristics and sentencing structure.