Police Disposition of Arrests: An Exploratory Study of the Treatment of the Older Offender (From Older Offenders: Perspectives in Criminology and Criminal Justice, P 107-122, 1988, Belinda McCarthy and Robert Langworthy, eds. -- See NCJ-110145)

• NCJ Number: 110152
• Author(s): R Langworthy; B McCarthy
• Date Published: 1988
• Length: 16 pages
• Sale Source: Praeger Publishers
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study compares case dispositions after arrest for various age groups of persons arrested in California in 1981.

Abstract

Data used in the analysis are from the 1981 California Offender Based Transaction System statistics. The full data set includes 200,661 adult felony arrest dispositions and provides information concerning arrest disposition (police release, nolle pros, dismissed, convicted, etc.), age, sex, race, and geographic and agency identifiers. From this data set the study extracted all adult felony arrest cases in which the defendant was 50 years old or older (n=6,538) and a 3.4 percent sample of the rest to generate an under-50-years old comparison group (n=6,546). Data suggest that older defendants are treated more harshly than younger suspects, regardless of other factors. Race is a predictor of police disposition for those younger than 50 years old but not for those older than 50 years old. Arrest charge, although a significant predictor for both younger and older groups, is a much stronger predictor of police disposition of those over 50 years old than for those under 50 years old. Overall, the relationships between the exogenous variables and police disposition appear similar in both age groups. 1 figure, 3 tables, and 10 notes.