Disposition of Adult Arrests: Legal and Extralegal Determinants of Outcomes (From From Boy to Man, From Delinquency to Crime, P 68-75, 1987, Marvin E Wolfgang, et al, eds. -- See NCJ-109901)

• NCJ Number: 109903
• Author(s): J J Collins
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 8 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute of Justice (NIJ); US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Sale Source: University of Chicago Press
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Data pertaining to how the criminal justice system handled the arrest of a 1945 Philadelphia chort sample (567) indicate that both legal and extralegal factors influenced outcomes.

Abstract

Serious offenses and offenders with more previous arrests were treated more harshly by the system. Slightly fewer than half the offenders arrested for index offenses were convicted, and just over half of those convicted were incarcerated. The likelihood of the conviction and incarceration of arrestees with serious criminal records was much greater than the conviction and incarceration of offenders with less serious records. Race affected certain dispositions. Early in the adjudication process and also at sentencing, nonwhites fared worse than whites. They were more likely to be held for court action and to be incarcerated after arrest. Racial discrimination was more likely to operate at points in the system where visibility and formal rules were less influential. Some evidence indicates that age or juvenile/adult criminal justice system differences influenced conviction and incarceration probabilities. 3 tables. (Author summary modified)