Impact of the No Early Release Act (NERA) on Prosecution and Sentencing in New Jersey, 1996-2000 (ICPSR 4178)

Published: Feb 25, 2005 View help for published

Cite this Study |

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Candace McCoy, Rutgers University--Newark. School of Criminal Justice; Patrick, Jr. McManimon, Kean University

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR04178.v1

Version V1

Summary View help for Summary

This study examined New Jersey's No Early Release Act (NERA), which became effective in 1997. NERA required that offenders convicted of violent crimes serve at least 85 percent of their sentences before becoming eligible for parole. This study's primary goal was to determine whether prosecutors changed their charging and plea bargaining practices in order to obtain sentences under NERA that were roughly equivalent to those imposed before NERA. Data were obtained from the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts for 1996 to May 2000. These data included every case in which a crime covered by the No Early Release Act was charged and, for comparison, every case involving a burglary charge, a charge not covered by NERA. These data cover defendants' progress through the New Jersey court system, including the initial charge, indictment, and sentencing.

Citation View help for Citation

McCoy, Candace, and McManimon, Patrick, Jr. Impact of the No Early Release Act (NERA) on Prosecution and Sentencing in New Jersey, 1996-2000  . Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2005-02-25. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR04178.v1

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Funding View help for Funding

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. National Institute of Justice (98-CE-VX-0007)

Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit

None.

Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research

Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)

1996 -- 2000

Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection

2000

Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose

This study examined New Jersey's No Early Release Act (NERA). This act, which became effective on September 9, 1997, required that offenders convicted of violent crimes serve at least 85 percent of their sentences before becoming eligible for parole. This study's primary goal was to determine whether prosecutors changed their charging and plea bargaining practices in order to obtain sentences under NERA that were roughly equivalent to those imposed before NERA. For comparison purposes, cases involving a burglary charge, a felony not covered under NERA, were examined in addition to cases involving charges covered by NERA. The following questions guided the research: (1) Did prosecutors charge a greater proportion of defendants at offense levels not covered by the law's "violent offender" definitions after the act took effect? (2) As part of plea agreements, did prosecutors reduce charges from those covered by the act to offenses not covered by the act? (3) Did trial rates change for those offenses covered by the act?

Study Design View help for Study Design

Data were obtained from the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts for 1996 to May 2000. These data cover defendants' progress through the New Jersey court system, including the initial charge, indictment, and sentencing. The data include every case in which a crime covered by the No Early Release Act was charged and every case involving a burglary charge. Many of these cases also involved other charges, and these charges are also included in the data. From 1996 to May 2000 there were 468,944 charges brought against criminal defendants for crimes covered by the No Early Release Act, burglary, and less serious crimes that were also charged as part of these felony legal cases.

Sample View help for Sample

inap.

Universe View help for Universe

Every charge in New Jersey from 1996 to May 2000 for a crime covered under the No Early Release Act, every charge for burglary, and all other charges involved in those cases.

Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation

Criminal charges

Data Source View help for Data Source

Data were obtained from New Jersey's Administrative Office of the Courts.

Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)

administrative records data

Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables

Variables include initial charge statute, initial charge date, whether there was a codefendant in the case, initial charge disposition date, initial charge disposition, initial charge disposition reason, indictment statute, indictment date, indictment disposition, indictment disposition reason, amount of fines and compensation paid by offender, statute sentenced under, type of sentence imposed, and sentence date.

Response Rates View help for Response Rates

Not applicable.

Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales

None.

Original Release Date View help for Original Release Date

2005-02-25

Version Date View help for Version Date

2005-02-25

Version History View help for Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • McCoy, Candace, and Patrick, Jr. McManimon. Impact of the No Early Release Act (NERA) on Prosecution and Sentencing in New Jersey, 1996-2000 . ICPSR04178-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2005. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR04178.v1

2005-02-25 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Standardized missing values.

Notes

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

NACJD logo

This dataset is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), the criminal justice archive within ICPSR. NACJD is primarily sponsored by three agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice: the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.