Doomed by the Data? Latina/o/x Racialization and Sentencing Outcomes in Florida.

Sentencing disparity research has generally focused on the Black-white binary or treats Latina/o/x/s as a monolithic group. Less attention has been paid to the ways that diverse racial identities among Latina/o/x/s may correlate with sentence severity. We integrate insights from Latinx studies to examine sentence length disparities in Florida from 2015 to 2017, with a particular interest in comparing the unique effects of Latinidad across varying racial identities. Multiple regression modeling with weighted effect coding is employed to assess prison sentence lengths for 73983 individuals using data from the National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP). The results demonstrate the need to treat Latina/o/x system-involved individuals as diverse, to integrate insights from Latinx studies in theorizing on related topics, and to identify innovative approaches for accurately capturing these data. The reliance on administrative data limits researchers' ability to adequately study ethnoracial sentencing disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]