Race,Plea, and Charge Reduction: An Assessment of Racial Disparities in the Plea Process

With the growing recognition of the salience of prosecutorial discretion, attention to biases in the earlier phases of case processing is increasing. Still, few studies have considered the influence of defendant race and race/sex within the plea process. The present study uses a sample of felony cases to assess the influence of race and race/sex on the mode of disposition, similarities and differences in the factors that predict the likelihood of a plea across race, and potential racial disparities in the plea value received pertaining to a charge reduction. The findings suggest that blacks, and black males in particular, are less likely to plea, and are expected to receive a lower value for their plea. Also, the factors that predict the likelihood of a plea are substantively different across race. Conditioning effects of race and sex are found in the likelihood of a plea and probabilities of a charge reduction.     

Criminal Prosecutions: Examining Prosecutorial Discretion and Charge Reductions in U.S. Federal District Courts

The role of the prosecutor in criminal punishments remains a fervent topic of criminal justice discourse, yet it has received limited empirical attention, particularly for U.S. Attorneys in federal district courts. The present study examines charging and sentencing outcomes in federal courts by combining charging data from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts with sentencing data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. The merger of these data sources overcomes limitations of each and provides for an investigation of the causes and consequences of federal prosecutorial charging decisions. Our investigation focuses on the subtle but important influences that extralegal offender characteristics exert in this process. Results indicate that some extralegal characteristics are intricately tied to the likelihood of charge reductions. Moreover, these effects sometimes interact to produce compound disadvantages for some groups of offenders. Our analyses are guided by contemporary theoretical perspectives on courtroom decision‐making.     

从观念走向制度——中国检察制度的历史探源与解析

对中国检察制度研究，在持客观态度的同时，科学的研究方法也同样重要。因此，笔者从历史角度对目前中国检察制度研究中出现的一些问题进行梳理．中国检察制度历史渊源主要有古代御史制度、苏联检察制度和西方检察制度，对历史渊源追行客观评价对检察制度改革至关重要。在改革中，司法理念与制度建设具有互动性，二者既可能相互取利又可能产生冲突，只有以史为鉴，妥善处理这些问题，才能保证检察制度改革稳步推进。     

Police professionalism and cynicism reconsidered: An assessment of measurement issues

A hierarchical logistic model is used to analyze data on Three Strikes-eligible offenders in California and the counties in which they are sentenced. The analysis finds that discretion is widely exercised by elected prosecutors and judges in the administration of Three Strikes. Discretion functions as a “safety valve” and preserves some sentencing proportionality, but may also allow political concerns to influence sentencing decisions. A more conservative political environment is strongly associated with stricter application of the law. Consistent with racial threat theory, eligible felons are more likely to receive Three Strikes sentences in counties with larger Latino populations. However, the size of the black population has no significant effect. Higher unemployment rates are associated with more stringent application of the law. Prosecutorial and judicial discretion benefits offenders unequally. Controlling for legally relevant factors, black offenders are more likely to receive Three Strikes sentences, while younger ones are less likely.     

Prosecutorial discretion to defer criminalization: The effects of defendant's ascribed and achieved status characteristics

This research contributes to a further understanding of prosecutorial discretion by exploring tenets of casual attribution theory and etiology of bias theory as each informs an uncertainty avoidance perspective on the prosecutor's decision to divert felony drug defendants from criminal prosecution and into a treatment program. The sociolegal consequences of the exercise of this early screening decision are expressed by both conflict theorists and labeling theorists. Our analysis involves estimating main effects and interaction effects of defendant ascribed status and achieved status on the likelihood of diversion. The findings indicate partial support for hypotheses derived, from the theoretical perspectives pursued. In addition these findings point to a more complex model of the subjective nature of the exercise of prosecutorial discretion, a model that benefits from understanding the salience of minimizing uncertainty in the decision to criminals.     

Picking battles: Correctional officers,rules, and discretion in prison

To outsiders, prisons vacillate between visions of regimented order and anarchic disorder. The place of rules in prison sits at the fulcrum between these two visions of regulation. Based on 131 qualitative interviews with correctional officers across four different prisons in western Canada, we examine how correctional officers understand and exercise discretion in prison. Our findings highlight how an officer's habitus shapes individual instances of discretionary decision‐making. We show how officers modify how they exercise discretion in light of their views on how incarcerated people, fellow officers, and supervisors will interpret their decisions. Although existing research often sees a correlation between “rule‐following” by incarcerated individuals and official statistics on such misdeeds, our data highlight that official statistics on rule violations do not easily represent the rate or frequency of such misbehavior. Instead, these numbers are highly discretionary organizational accomplishments. Our findings advance an appreciation for correctional officer discretion by focusing on the range of factors officers might contemplate in forward‐looking decisions about applying a rule and how they rationalize the nonenforcement of rules.     

关于“管道燃气初装费”相关法律问题分析

本文认为,我国各地征收的“管道燃气初装费”是不平等的行政性强制收费,目前的三类收费模式均存在不同程度的法律问题.解决这一问题较为可取的途径不是移植国外两部制气价等制度,而应将初装费并入地方政府城市基础设施配套费予以征收并完善相关征管制度,在主管管网建设基本饱和、补偿金每年支出较少的地方应逐步取消本项收费.     

Patterns in burglary: An empirical examination of offense and offender characteristics

Key cluster analysis was used to examine the various characteristics of both burglars and burglaries to determine the existence and extent of any relationship between the offender and the incident. The data were gathered from six law enforcement agencies in California.Although some patterns were suggestive of a relationship between race, method of entry, and economic level of the burglarized location, no strong patterns could be found.     

In Search of the Missing Link: Examining Contextual Variation in Federal Charge Bargains across U.S. District Courts

Abstract

Punishment scholars acknowledge the fundamental importance of both prosecutorial discretion and jurisdictional variation in punishment; yet, little is known about the extent to which charging practices vary across court contexts. This is especially true in the federal criminal justice system. This research investigates this issue by linking four years of charging data from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC) to corresponding data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC). It incorporates unique information on district court contexts from a variety of sources to investigate jurisdictional variation in charge reductions. Findings provide evidence that federal charging practices vary across district courts. In particular, several structural court characteristics are significantly related to the likelihood of charge reduction for similarly-situated defendants. Results from this study are interpreted through the lens of contemporary legal perspectives on court communities and suggest several fruitful directions for additional research on the social contexts of criminal prosecution.     

Inference structures for crime analysis and intelligence: the example of burglary using forensic science data

There has been much work dedicated to crime analysis and intelligence in recent times. Independently, physical evidence has shown great potential for linking crimes and bringing solid informative data through the increased use of multiple databases. However, their informative potential is still often underestimated and has been poorly integrated into police information systems. We propose a framework that fully introduces this data into an intelligence based system. This framework is built on the study of inference structures extracted from investigators’ every day implicit reasoning processes. Five specific inferences are studied with the particular problem of serial burglary investigation across independent police and legal structures. On the basis of such an analytical approach, a computer prototype has been designed; it has shown great promise and has resulted in several operational successes.     

Examining Prosecutorial Discretion in Federal Criminal Cases: Legal and Extra-Legal Determinants of Declination and Charge Change Decisions

Abstract

From 2000 to 2010, the federal criminal caseload increased roughly 50% with a large portion of this increase attributed to the rise in immigration prosecutions. These changes coupled with recent Supreme Court decisions rendering the guidelines advisory have renewed calls for research examining prosecutorial discretion, particularly with respect to the influence of legal and extralegal factors on charging and bargaining decisions. This study utilizes data (2002–2010) from the Federal Justice Statistics Program database housed within the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD). More specifically, the current research examines prosecutorial decisions to decline to charge federal arrestees and to make any changes to the charge from the arresting offense. Results from the multilevel, multivariate models reveal that both extra-legal and legal factors were influential of these decisions. Disaggregated models also revealed considerable variation across different offense types. Finally, districts with higher caseloads had lower odds of a prosecutorial declination and charge change.     

行政自由裁量权的法律控制——以美国行政法为视角

在实际世界中,绝大多数的行政行为并没有受到司法审查,而且其中相当一部分行为的性质决定了它们不可能受到有效的司法控制.传统的行政法学过分注重"法"的这一面,全部的注意力都放在立法与法院,以至于忽视了问题的另一面,即行政机构在许多情形下都具有很难受到控制的自由裁量权.行政自由裁量权及其法律控制的可能性问题是行政法治的根本问题,因为有关司法审查的标准与力度的问题在本质上就是如何对待行政自由裁量权.     

Criminal justice decision making as a stratification process: The role of race and stratification resources in pretrial release

Our purpose is to bridge the criminal justice and stratification research literatures and to pursue the argument that homologous structural principles stratify allocation processes across central institutions of American society. The principle observed here in the making of bail decisions, as in earlier studies of the allocation of earnings, is that stratification resources operate to the greater advantage of whites than blacks. The operation of this principle is established through the estimation of covariance structure models of pretrial release decisions affecting 5660 defendants in 10 federal courts. Education and income are treated in this study as observed components of a composite construct, stratification resources, which works to the greater advantage of whites. Prior record is also found to operate to the greater advantage of whites. Two further variables, dangerousness and community ties, increase bail severity among blacks and whites. While the effect of community ties has been legally legitimized since the Bail Reform Act of 1966, the effect of dangerousness was not so legitimized until the Bail Reform Act of 1984. However, because our data precede the latter act, they confirm that this act simply reinstitutionalized earlier practice. Meanwhile, our race-specific findings may explain why although this and earlier studies find negligible main effects of race on criminal justice outcomes, black Americans nonetheless perceive more criminal injustice than do whites. In the criminal justice system, as in other spheres of American society, whites receive a better return on their resources, but our findings that the statutory severity of the offense and dangerousness work to the relative disadvantage of white defendants challenges conflict and labeling theory's one-dimensional characterization of black defendant disadvantage.     

迷局与破解:当前检察权研究中的误区剖析

学界对检察权的研究存在四个明显的误区。首先是三权分立的僵化框架抑制了监督权的独立形态,致使检察权的监督性被遮蔽;没有对不同诉讼模式作区分,也没有对不同诉讼模式中的检察官做出区分;角色认知上人为地抬高检察官贬低法官造成误解;片面地理解监督方式,脱离实际地只看见监督链没有看见监督网。     

Prosecutorial discretion in seeking death: An analysis of racial disparity in the pretrial stages of case processing in a midwestern county

In the 1987 case of McCleskey v. Kemp, the U.S. Supreme Court appeared to foreclose the possibility of challenging racial bias in capital sentencing by using statistically based claims of discrimination. McCleskey, however, does not prevent a challenge to decisions made by particular individuals during the capital punishment process. In this study we examined pretrial decisions made by, or under the direction of, one prosecutor to determine whether those decisions had been influenced by race. We found that homicide cases involving black defendants and white victims fared worse than other racial combinations in all of the pretrial decisions made: They were more likely to result in first-degree murder charges, to be served notice of aggravating circumstances, and to proceed to capital trial.     

魏晋谋反罪中的兄弟连坐——基于公孙渊案、钟会案、杨骏案的考察

若说魏晋间罪名的界定和相关处罚规定、原则存在因袭汉律或发生变异的话,仅靠律文表述恐怕不足以说明问题,有相关案例可证可佐或许是更重要的依据。就谋反罪中所涉及的兄弟连坐问题而言,公孙渊、钟会、杨骏三案具备兄弟中有人谋反,有人陈情自告却又株连入罪的共性;但处理结果却生杀两殊。在承认古人有遇事求同类比的心理前提下分析三案,恐怕我们对任何案例所要认识的并不仅仅是罪与罚的问题,而是罪与罚背后的法律观念、价值与判断,以及古人是如何理解、接受甚至批判的。     

The “Distance Traveled”: Investigating the Downstream Consequences of Charge Reductions for Disparities in Incarceration

Abstract

Relatively little work examines the impact that charging decisions exert on sentencing. We investigate this issue by estimating the “distance traveled” in charge bargaining, or the expected change in the likelihood of incarceration associated with reductions in charges across different stages of prosecution. Using data from New York County, we examine how the probability of incarceration shifts as a result of charging decisions and how this potentially contributes to social inequalities in incarceration. Findings indicate that charge reductions are associated with sizeable decreases in the probability of incarceration, particularly at the plea bargaining stage. On average, the “distance traveled” is substantially greater for female than male defendants and for White compared to Latino and Black defendants, even after accounting for a host of relevant punishment factors. Findings are discussed as they relate to contemporary theoretical perspectives on prosecutorial decision-making and social inequality in punishment.     

Politics and the Adoption of Legislative Television: An Analysis of the U.S. House Vote on C-SPAN

The present study extends the work of Crain and Goff (1988) by examining the political determinants of the earliest decision to adopt legislative television on a permanent basis at the national level in the United States. Data on legislator and district characteristics are used to explain the 1977 vote to adopt C-SPAN coverage of proceedings in the U.S. House of Representatives. Logit regression results suggest that length of service and extremity of political views/ideologies had clear and significant effects on politicians' votes concerning the adoption of legislative television. As with Crain and Goff (1988), these measures capture some element of legislator self-interest.     

外商直接投资与产业劳动力转移效应研究——基于1981——2006年的实证分析

基于协整理论,以中国1981-2006年的时间序列数据为依托,从产业角度对FDI与我国劳动力就业之间的长期均衡与短期动态关系进行实证分析.结果表明:FDI与我国劳动力就业之间存在长期稳定的均衡关系,FDI对第一、第二产业劳动力就业产生负向效应;对第三产业劳动力就业产生正向效应.短期内,FDI与第一、第三产业劳动力之间具有单向因果关系,与第二产业劳动力之间则不具有任何单向因果关系.冲击反应分析进一步表明,FDI对第三产业劳动力吸收效应最大,第二产业最小,对国内劳动力就业的综合效应并不显著.