This Issue Paper focuses on racial disparities in sentencing for the offenses of Carrying a Pistol without a License (CPWL)1 and Second Degree Child Sex Abuse2 among defendants with the lowest Criminal History Score under the D.C. Voluntary Sentencing Guidelines (Guidelines). These offense-criminal history pairings were selected due to the amount of available data for both Black and White defendants; no other offense-criminal history group combinations yielded a sufficient sample size for both populations. By examining a specific subset of offenses and defendants, this study aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of the factors that contribute to racial disparities in sentencing within this jurisdiction.

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