NCJ Number
108654
Journal
Journal of Quantitative Criminology Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1987) Pages: 229-250
Date Published
1987
Length
22 pages
Annotation
During the 1970's, 94 Federal district courts implemented 2 major policy initiatives, Rule 50(b) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and the Federal Speedy Trial Act, both designed to combat delay in the processing of Federal criminal cases.
Abstract
Both initiatives established a national priority of delay reduction, encouraged local district court planning for delay reduction, established reporting procedures for monitoring local compliance, and provided for the determination of quantitative goals for the time to disposition in criminal cases. Neither initiative mandated specific activities for delay reduction: this determination was left to the discretion of local Federal courts. To examine the impact and effectiveness of these initiatives, a 150-month time-series analysis was conducted using individual case-level data and controls for court and case characteristics for cases filed between January 1970 and June 1982. Mean, median, and 90th-percentile measures of case processing times were used. Results indicate that the initiatives contributed to a dramatic reduction in time to disposition in Federal criminal cases even with controls for judicial resources and case characteristics. 1 figure, 5 tables, and 35 references. (Author abstract modified)