SOCIAL CLASS AS A FACTOR AFFECTING JUDICIAL DISPOSITION Defendants Charged with Criminal Homosexual Acts

This article examines the proposition that criminal defendants from lower social classes receive more severe judicial disposition than do criminal defendants from hgher social classes Evidence from cases involving prosecution for felonious homosexual acts does not lend much support to the proposition that there is social class bias in judicial disposition of criminal cases. Several models are discussed which might be used to orient future research into how courts handle criminal cases.