NCJ Number
86402
Date Published
1982
Length
92 pages
Annotation
The criteria used in three major judicial decisions -- dispositions, pleas, and sentencing -- were analyzed using PROMIS data for all the cases processed and closed in a criminal court of a midwestern city of about 800,000 population during 1979.
Abstract
The study also focused on differences in the criteria's uses for male and female offenders. The ideal justice model, which sets evidence as the major determinant of guilt and offense seriousness as the major determinant of sentence severity, was used as the basis for the analysis of dispositions and sentencing. Pleas were studied with reference to various interpretive propositions. Dispositions did not appear to be based on evidence, since evidence indicators explained only 2 percent of the variance in dispositions. Only the offense added some to the explanation of dispositions, but it added only 4 percent. The most fitting explanation of disposition decisions was that of a random decisionmaking process. However, males had a higher probability of conviction than did females. More criteria appeared to be used in the decisions regarding males than those regarding females. The number of charges and the type and seriousness of the offense were the most important predictors of guilty pleas and plea bargaining but contributed little or nothing to the explanation of innocent pleas. However, women pleaded guilty more often than did males. Male offenders received significantly more severe sentences than female offenders, but sentences were similar for men and women with past records. However, nonwhite women were committed to prison more than twice as often as white women. Data tables, footnotes, and an appendix presenting an additional table are provided.