Sentencing in Homicide Cases and the Role of Vengeance

Does the economic model of optimal punishment explain the variation in the sentencing of murderers? While there is strong support for several predictions of the model, we document that sentences respond to victim characteristics in a way that is hard to reconcile with optimal punishment. In particular, victim characteristics are important determinants of sentencing among vehicular homicides, in which victims are basically random and in which the optimal punishment model predicts that victim characteristics should be ignored. Among vehicular homicides, drivers who kill women get 59 percent longer sentences. Drivers who kill blacks get 60 percent shorter sentences.