Racial Disparities in Virginia Felony Court Cases, 2007-2015 (ICPSR 38274)
Version Date: Jan 27, 2022 View help for published
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Shamena Anwar, RAND Corporation
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR38274.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
Research examining racial disparities in the court system has typically focused on only one of the discrete stages in the criminal process (the charging, conviction, or sentencing stages), with the majority of the literature focusing on the sentencing stage. The literature has thus largely ignored the key early decisions made by the prosecutor such as their decision to prosecute, the determination of preliminary charges, charge reductions, and plea negotiations. Further, the few studies that have examined whether racial disparities arise in prosecutorial charging decisions are rarely able to follow these cases all the way through the criminal court process. This project sought to expand the literature by using a dataset on felony cases filed in twelve Virginia counties between 2007 through 2015 whereby each criminal incident can be followed from the initial charge filing stage to the final disposition. Using each felony case as the unit of analysis, this data was used to evaluate whether African Americans and whites that are arrested for the same felony crimes have similar final case outcomes.
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Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
County
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
The purpose of this study was to investigate the racial disparities of incarceration rates between African American men and white men that are arrested for felony crimes. This study sought to highlight the decisions made by prosecutors, such as their decision to prosecute, the determination of preliminary charges, charge reductions, and plea negotiations. This project used a dataset on felony cases filed in twelve Virginia counties between 2007 and 2015 whereby each criminal incident can be followed from the initial charge stage to the final disposition.
Study Design View help for Study Design
The data necessary for this study was obtained by scraping data from all court hearings that occurred in both the District and Circuit court of a given Virginia county between 2007 and 2015.
Sample View help for Sample
The data necessary for this study was obtained by scraping data from all court hearings that occurred in both the District and Circuit court of a given Virginia county between 2007 and 2015. The data initially contained a sample of 30 counties, but several of the counties ended up prosecuting very few felony cases over the time period and were dropped from the dataset. Additionally, this study dropped any defendant who had more than one felony offense date in either District or Circuit Court.
Time Method View help for Time Method
Universe View help for Universe
Individuals arrested on felony charges that had their charges filed with the District Court in twelve counties in Virginia between 2007 to 2015.
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Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
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Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
The variables in this dataset summarize each defendant's charges associated with each criminal incident at the beginning of the District Court stage, as well as summarizing the charges they were convicted of in both District and Circuit Courts. The study also contains variables identifying the county in which the case was adjudicated, the defendant's race, and the year of the disposition.
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2022-01-27
Version History View help for Version History
2022-01-27 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:
- Performed consistency checks.
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.