NCJ Number
194828
Journal
The British Journal of Criminology Volume: 42 Issue: 1 Dated: Winter 2002 Pages: 186-210
Date Published
2002
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This paper provides empirical evidence from a study of Canadian bail hearings that suggests that, unlike new penology predictions, the disciplinary focus of the courts has not been totally displaced by risk reasoning.
Abstract
The findings reported in this paper came from a multifaceted study of over 1,800 criminal cases brought before two Toronto bail courts over a 6-month period between October 1993 and April 1994. Observation of hearings occurred on 2 days per week, alternating between the two courts, and the sample selected consisted of all individuals whose cases were on the court docket on those days. Each case was tracked from initial observation at bail court until final disposition and sentencing, or until 14 months had elapsed from the time of the initial bail hearing. The statistical models used controlled for three "personal identity" characteristics of the accused: race, gender, and age. The study explored whether these demographic characteristics impacted bail decisions before and after controlling for relevant legal variables. The analysis found that individualized, moral assessments of accused persons had a strong influence on remand decisions. Accused persons who received a negative personality assessment from the police were much more likely to be detained than those who received neutral assessments. The analysis also found that these subjective character evaluations helped explain racial differences in the likelihood of pretrial detention. Moreover, rather than "managing risk," the findings showed that the detention of accused persons was an important resource that the prosecution used to encourage or coerce guilty pleas from accused persons. Those accused who were not held in pretrial custody, by contrast, were much more likely to have all of their charges withdrawn by the prosecution. This paper advises that since the criteria that routinely shape decisions about pretrial risk are not free from moral judgments, identity politics only appears to be disappearing because they are dispersed and institutionalized into informal practices at bail and plea-bargaining stages. What is structured into this linkage between bail and plea bargaining is not a reduction of the accused's opportunities for offending so much as a decrease in the ability of vulnerable groups to resist the system's power to punish. 2 tables, 48 references, and appended description of independent and dependent variables