Explaining and Assessing the Pretrial Process - A Comprehensive Theoretical Approach and Operationalized, Multi-Jurisdictional Application

• NCJ Number: 82817
• Author(s): J Eisenstein; P F Nardulli; R B Flemming
• Date Published: 1979
• Length: 50 pages
• Grant Number(s): 79-NI-AX-0062
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Presented at the Law and Society Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California, May 10-12, 1979.

Annotation

This paper outlines a research design that operationalizes and integrates three major theoretical approaches that have recently emerged in the study of criminal courts by studying misdemeanor and felony dispositions in nine nonmetropolitan courts in Illinois, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

Abstract

The attitude approach examines attitudes of main courtroom actors, especially judges. The contextual approach focuses on case and defendant characteristics, norms of courtroom workgroups, and the influence of sponsoring organizations on workgroups' composition and goals. The environmental approach emphasizes concepts such as local legal culture, local political culture, and the structure of institutions, statutes, and precedents. Project objectives are (1) to contribute to the development of a comprehensive theoretical approach to guide research on and increase understanding of criminal courts and (2) to advance the ability to use such a theory in examining how courts can process cases more consistently, fairly, and efficiently. The research strategy relies upon both 'macro' and 'micro' levels of analysis. The micro analysis probes the factors that affect the disposition of individual defendants' cases within a jurisdiction. The macro analysis examines two questions: (1) what relationships exist between 'environmental' variables on the one hand and 'contextual' and 'individual' variables on the other and (2) what relationships exist between 'environmental' variables and aggregate measures of jurisdictions' outputs (e.g., guilty plea rate). Both questions rely mainly on between jurisdictions comparisons. Together, the micro and macro analyses will help provide answers to research questions about integrating the various extant approaches to understanding criminal counts and implications that an improved understanding will have on implementing changes affecting efficiency, consistency, and fairness. Figures, tables, 48 footnotes, and about 60 references are included.