Police Decision To Detain - A Study of Legal Labelling and Police Deviance (From Organizational Police Deviance - Its Structure and Control P 9-28, 1981, Clifford D Shearing, ed. - See NCJ-85562)

• NCJ Number: 85563
• Author(s): J Hagan; C P Morden
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 20 pages
• Sale Source: Butterworth
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This Canadian paper explores the role police play in detaining the accused for bail hearings prior to trial and the effect of this decision on conviction and sentencing.

Abstract

Data were derived from official records from a research project on criminal victimization. The legal, extra-legal, and quasi-legal variables explored include accused characteristics and offense-related variables. Variables, such as unemployment, that directly influence bail decisions, also directly influence conviction and sentencing. While unemployment may have some quasi-legal legitimacy at the bail stage, it does not have a similar claim at later stages. Nonetheless, the influence prevails, with disadvantageous consequences for the poor and others. These structured forms of police deviance are not highly visible to the police or the public but have extremely important consequences for suspects. Candadian police make pretrial detention decisions with little guidance from the law. Thus, while the Bail Reform Act instructs police to consider 'reasonable and probable' grounds of flight risk and the broader 'public interest' in their decisions, it provides little indication as to the criteria to be used in doing so. This makes it impossible to draw a hard line between legal and extra-legal criteria that influence pretrial release decisions. Data tables, illustrations, and about 30 references are supplied.