Access to Justice in Ontario, 1985-1988 (ICPSR 9729)
Analyzing Trial Time in California, Colorado, and New Jersey, 1986 (ICPSR 9223)
The Anatomy of Discretion: An Analysis of Prosecutorial Decision-making for Cases Processed by Offices in One Northern County and One Southern County, 2007-2010 (ICPSR 32542)
Prosecuting attorneys enjoy broad discretion in making decisions that influence criminal case outcomes. This study examines the impact of legal, quasi-legal, and extra-legal factors on case outcomes throughout the prosecutorial process. It then examines how prosecutors weigh these factors in their decision making and explores the formal and informal mechanisms that constrain or regulate prosecutors' decision-making.
The study examines case screening decisions, charging decisions, plea offers, sentence recommendations, and dismissals in two moderately large county prosecutors' offices. It includes statistical analyses of actual case outcomes, responses to a standardized set of hypothetical cases, and responses to a survey of prosecutors' opinions and priorities, as well as qualitative analyses of two waves of individual interviews and focus groups. It addresses the following questions:
- How did prosecutors define and apply the concepts of justice and fairness?
- What factors were associated with prosecutorial outcomes at each stage?
- How did prosecutors interpret and weigh different case-specific factors in making decisions at each stage?
- How did contextual factors constrain or regulate prosecutorial decision making?
- How consistent were prosecutors' decisions across similar cases? What case-level and contextual factors influenced the degree of consistency?
Arkansas Juvenile Court Records, 1994 (ICPSR 6883)
Arrests Without Conviction, 1979-1980: Jacksonville and San Diego (ICPSR 8180)
Assessing Local Legal Culture: Practitioner Norms in Four Criminal Courts, 1979 (ICPSR 7808)
Assessment of a Single-Purpose Substance Abuse Facility for Committed Juvenile Offenders in Virginia, 1995-1997 (ICPSR 2730)
Augmented Federal Probation, Sentencing, and Supervision Information System, 1985 (ICPSR 9664)
Bethlehem [Pennsylvania] Police Family Group Conferencing Project, 1993-1997 (ICPSR 2679)
Changing Patterns of Drug Abuse and Criminality Among Crack Cocaine Users in New York City: Criminal Histories and Criminal Justice System Processing, 1983-1984, 1986 (ICPSR 9790)
Civil Justice Survey of State Courts, 1992 (ICPSR 6587)
Civil Justice Survey of State Courts, 1996 (ICPSR 2883)
Civil Justice Survey of State Courts, 2001 (ICPSR 3957)
Civil Justice Survey of State Courts, 2005 (ICPSR 23862)
Civil Justice Survey of Trials on Appeal, 2005 (ICPSR 32501)
Civil Litigation in the United States, 1977-1979 (ICPSR 7994)
Community-Level Influences on the Sentencing of Convicted Sex Offenders, Pennsylvania, 2004-2010 (ICPSR 36593)
These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.
This study examined the extent to which contextual factors influenced variation in sex offender sentencing decisions.
By law, Pennsylvania trial courts were required to submit all felony and misdemeanor convictions under the Pennsylvania Sentencing Guidelines to the Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing on a yearly basis.
These data were supplemented with county-level data from the American Community Survey, Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts' Annual Caseload Statistics of the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, Associated Religion Data Archives, and Pennsylvania Department of State, Voter Registration Statistics Archives.
The collection contains 1 SPSS data file (Cleaned-Data-2015-R2-CX-0039.sav (n=318048; 31 variables)).
Demographic variables include gender, race, and defendant's age at sentencing.