CUMULATIVE DISADVANTAGE: EXAMINING RACIAL AND ETHNIC DISPARITY IN PROSECUTION AND SENTENCING

Current research on criminal case processing typically examines a single decision‐making point, so drawing reliable conclusions about the impact that factors such as defendants’ race or ethnicity exert across successive stages of the justice system is difficult. Using data from the New York County District Attorney's Office that tracks 185,275 diverse criminal cases, this study assesses racial and ethnic disparity for multiple discretionary points of prosecution and sentencing. Findings from multivariate logistic regression analyses demonstrate that the effects of race and ethnicity vary by discretionary point and offense category. Black and Latino defendants were more likely than White defendants to be detained, to receive a custodial plea offer, and to be incarcerated—and they received especially punitive outcomes for person offenses—but were more likely to benefit from case dismissals. The findings for Asian defendants were less consistent but suggest they were the least likely to be detained, to receive custodial offers, and to be incarcerated. These findings are discussed in the context of contemporary theoretical perspectives on racial bias and cumulative disadvantage in the justice system.     

The impact of race and extra-legal factors in charging defendants with serious sexual assault: Findings from a five-year study of one Pennsylvania court jurisdiction

Research on sexual assault case processing remains mixed regarding how extra-legal factors such as the racial-ethnic composition of the defendant-victim dyad may impact prosecutorial decision-making. We use data from 2006–2010 in a Pennsylvania county court jurisdiction to examine the victim- and defendant-related factors that influence charging decisions. We also explore how the demographic and offense characteristics influence decisions to prosecute offenders for more serious types of sexual assault. Our findings indicate that the racial composition of the defendant-victim dyad contributed to the prosecutorial decision to charge an offender with a more serious sexual assault, while victim characteristics and use of violence during the offense were not related to seriousness of the charge.     

Race,the Economic Maturity Gap,and Criminal Offending in Young Adulthood

While research has documented that racial and ethnic groups are differentially involved in juvenile and adult crime, little research has examined whether economic and employment well‐being can explain Black and White adolescents' persistence in criminal activity into young adulthood. One potential explanation emerges from Moffitt, who posits an economic maturity gap to explain Blacks' greater persistence in offending in young adulthood. To evaluate this hypothesis, we draw on three waves of data available in the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health to examine whether economic and employment well‐being in young adulthood can account for the racial gap, and persistence in offending. Findings are consistent with Moffitt's hypothesis and indicate that economic and employment well‐being in young adulthood explain Blacks' greater involvement in criminal and violent offending in young adulthood. In addition, results indicate that the greater tendency of Blacks, compared to Whites, to persist in violent offending is also driven by the reduced economic and employment well‐being that Blacks face in young adulthood.     

Opening Pandora’s Box: How Does Defendant Race Influence Plea Bargaining?

Minority overrepresentation in the criminal justice system has long been an important topic of research and policy debate. In New York City, recent changes in the Rockefeller Drug Laws and the controversy around police stop-and-frisk practices have placed an even greater emphasis on the need for studying the possible impact of defendants’ race and ethnicity on criminal justice outcomes. Relatively little contemporary research, though, examines plea-bargaining outcomes. Using unique data on misdemeanor marijuana cases, this study examines the impact of defendants’ race on prosecutors’ decisions to make (a) plea offers for a lesser charge and (b) sentence offers for non-custodial punishments. Preliminary findings indicated that black defendants were less likely to receive reduced charge offers, and both black and Latino defendants were more likely to receive custodial sentence offers. However, these disparities were largely explained by legal factors, evidence, arrest circumstances, and court actor characteristics, though black defendants were still more likely to receive custodial sentence offers after including these controls. No differences were found between white and Asian defendants. Implications for research and prosecutorial practices are discussed.     

POLICE DISRESPECT TOWARD THE PUBLIC: AN ENCOUNTER‐BASED ANALYSIS*

We use observations of police encounters with 3,130 suspects in Indianapolis and St. Petersburg to estimate three influences on police disrespect: how suspects behave, their personal characteristics, and the location of the encounter. Logistic regression models show that suspects' behaviors were the most powerful predictors, but the suspect's sex, age, income, and degree of neighborhood disadvantage were also significant. Minority suspects experienced disrespect less often than whites (statistically significant in the hierarchical analysis controlling for degree of neighborhood disadvantage). These effects are concentrated in St. Petersburg, where the chief had made the suppression of police abuses a visible priority. The findings offer partial confirmation of Donald Black's theory of law.     

INDUSTRIAL SHIFT,POLARIZED LABOR MARKETS AND URBAN VIOLENCE: MODELING THE DYNAMICS BETWEEN THE ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION AND DISAGGREGATED HOMICIDE*

Industrial restructuring marks the removal of a manufacturing and production‐based economy in urban areas, which had served as a catalyst in concentrating disadvantage and polarizing labor markets since the 1970s. Although scholars have established a relationship between concentrated disadvantage — poverty, joblessness, racial residential segregation — and urban violence in cross‐sectional studies, this literature has yet to estimate whether economic restructuring contributed to the change in urban homicide over time. Modeling this relationship requires an analytical strategy that incorporates specific indicators of (race and gender) polarized labor markets, separate from indicators of urban disadvantage, on disaggregated homicides while taking into account the growing dependency of urban cities on formal social control (via police presence and rise in incarceration). In this study I provide a theoretical rationale for linking industrial restructuring to urban homicide. Using a multivariate strategy to capture the shift in labor market forces and disaggregated homicides from 1980 to 1990, I also estimate the impact of this relationship. The results provide evidence of the industrial ship and documents both the decline in Manufacturing jobs for black males and black females and a growth in the service sector opportunities for white males only. I also find that industrial restructuring had a unique impact on disaggregated homicide beyond what has previously been established in cross‐sectional studies.     

RACE,ETHNICITY, THREAT AND THE LABELING OF CONVICTED FELONS*

Florida law allows judges to withhold adjudication of guilt for persons who have either pled guilty or been found guilty of a felony. This provision may apply only to persons who will be sentenced to probation, and it allows such individuals to retain all civil rights and to truthfully assert they had not been convicted of a felony. This paper examines the effects of race and Hispanic ethnicity on the withholding of adjudication for 91,477 males sentenced to probation in Florida between 1999 and 2002. Hierarchical Generalized Linear Modeling is used to assess the direct effects of defendant attributes as well as the cross‐level interactions between race, ethnicity and community level indicators of threat, such as percentage black and Hispanic and concentrated disadvantage. Our results show that Hispanics and blacks are significantly less likely to have adjudication withheld when other individual and community level factors are controlled. This effect is especially pronounced for blacks and for drug offenders. Cross‐level interactions show that concentrated disadvantage has a substantial effect on the adjudication withheld outcome for both black and Hispanic defendants. The implications of these results for the conceptualization of racial/ethnic threat at the individual, situational and social levels are discussed.     

我国刑事起诉程序的不足与完善

我国刑事立法中自诉案件存在的不足主要表现为自诉案件范围过于宽泛,自诉与公诉转换条件模糊,因而自诉程序的价值难以发挥。应当限制自诉案件的范围,对由公安机关立案侦查的自诉案件,被害人有是否提起公诉的决定权。     

核准追诉制度实务问题研究

核准追诉制度根源于追诉时效制度。追诉时效制度是世界各国刑法普遍规定的一项制度,是现代国家对刑事追诉权的自我约束和限制。近年来,我国每年都有一些超过20年追诉时效期限的刑事案件提请最高人民检察院核准追诉。由于法律规定得比较宏观原则,且学界对此研究不多,核准追诉案件办理过程中存在不少困惑和问题。笔者就这些问题做了一些初步的归纳和分析研究,希望对司法实务有所裨益,以期推进核准追诉制度的科学化。     

论我国的检察申诉制度

我国正处于社会的转型时期,复杂多变的社会矛盾不断涌现。虽然我国的申诉制度一方面肩负着化解矛盾、维护社会稳定的重任,另一方面却是滞后的理论研究和混乱的申诉秩序。不过,＂申诉＂被限定解释为检察申诉为我们提供了一个新的视角,能使我们重新认识我国的检察申诉制度和检察申诉权的运作,从而进一步完善和改革现行的申诉制度,以更好地发挥申诉在促进社会和谐稳定上的关键性作用。     

公诉审查略式程序研究--省略我国审查起诉程序的思考

公诉审查程序以防止无根据的追诉和审判,防止国家公诉权滥用,保障犯罪嫌疑人权利为要.但不利于提高诉讼效率,保障犯罪嫌疑人获得迅速审判的权利.因此各国都规定在一定条件下,可以省略公诉审查程序.目前我国任何案件进入审判程序都必须经过审查起诉程序.因此,应当规定可能判处三年以下有期徒刑、拘役、管制或者单处罚金的案件,如果证据确实充分且犯罪嫌疑人同意简化公诉审查程序的,经检察机关同意,可以省略审查起诉程序.     

论法律监督与控、辩、审的关系

The purpose to set up public prosecution power is to restrict the investigation and judicial power. Public prosecution power is an organic combination of prosecution and trial supervision. The procurator’s supervision in the court does not infringe on the defendants’ procedural right. The procuratorial organ’s supervision on the matters of the court at the same level is only a power to start the correction procedure, however, the substantive power to make the final decision of whether to admit the mistake and how to make remedies belongs to the court. Therefore, the public prosecution’s status is much higher than that of the defense and the interferences with independent judicial power of courts by legal supervision do not exist in China. Gao Jingfeng is a senior procurator of the Supreme Procuratorate of China, National Research Specialist in procuratorial theory. His over ten major works include The Report on Judicial Reform—the procuratorate and courts in China, Chinese Procuratorial Practice, Outline of Chinese procuratorial system, Research on Office Crimes. His over thirty academic articles were released by the journals, such as Jurists, Legal Procedure and Judicial Systems, Procuratorial Daily, People’s Procuratorial, Legal Daily.     

CONCENTRATED DISADVANTAGE,TRADITIONAL MALE ROLE MODELS,AND AFRICAN‐AMERICAN JUVENILE VIOLENCE*

In a stagnating urban economy, Elijah Anderson's (1999) Code of the Street depicts a disadvantaged environment where residents face high levels of joblessness, poverty, racial residential isolation, and family disruption. Anderson argues that the loss of job opportunities for African‐American men deprived younger generations of traditional male role models. That is, in a disadvantaged urban setting with a lack of male role models participating in legitimate labor market activity, many young people may turn to violence. Drawing on insights from Anderson's ethnographic work, we assess the generality of Anderson's claims more broadly and explore the potential connection between his work and the macrolevel research on urban violence. Specifically, we explore the influence of male role models (older, employed black males) and the concentration of urban disadvantage on black juvenile arrests for violence across multiple cities in 2000. Overall, we find empirical support for Anderson's concerns over the removal of traditional male role models from urban areas as a result of concentrated disadvantage. Specifically, we find that the presence of traditional male role models reduces the rates of African‐American youth violence. Additionally, our measure of traditional male role models mediates the relationship between structural disadvantage and juvenile violence. We discuss the contributions of Anderson's work to the macrolevel study of urban violence.     

犯罪控制视野下的暂缓起诉裁量权

随着起诉裁量权的扩大化,在刑事起诉程序中运用高质量的犯罪控制策略,可以减少人与人之间的冲突,促使人们积极行动并且积极合作;它还可以很好地实现有限司法资源的适当配置,从而实现诉讼效率。暂缓起诉的价值就在于它在起诉阶段将一部分刑事案件进行分流,使其不必进入审判程序,这不仅有利于节约司法资源,实现诉讼的经济原则,同时国家检察机关通过暂缓起诉对刑事案件的介入处理,也可以达到弱化社会矛盾,调整社会关系,恢复社会秩序的目的,从而实现犯罪控制的社会整体效益。     

公诉一体化机制改革述评

目前,我国正在推进公诉一体化的制度建设.公诉一体化有利于高效地追诉犯罪;防范公诉权滥用;防止外部的非法干预;保障被告人权利.其主要内容应当包括上级检察院的指令权、下级抖检察院的报告义务、公诉政策一体化和公诉人一体化.但是,在公诉一体化的同时应当保障公诉检察官的相对独立性.我国在推进公诉一体化机制改革时,一方面在改革内容上存在欠缺,另一方面忽视了保障公诉检察官的相对独立性,应当加以改进.