NDLI: Measuring and Explaining Charge Bargaining

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Piehl, Anne Morrison Bushway, Shawn D.
Copyright Year	2007
Abstract	Charge bargaining is a potentially important form of discretion in criminal sentencing that is obscured in many studies of sentencing outcomes. Our procedure to measure the difference in sentencing outcomes caused by plea bargain emphasizes the amount, in months, that the sentence length is reduced. Using this measure, we compare prosecutorial discretion across counties in two different states. We conclude that charge bargaining plays an empirically important role in determining sentencing outcomes. Furthermore, we find that measuring the distance (in months of prison time) moved during a charge bargain may provide a very different estimate of the discretion than is given by the rate of bargaining, which is the usual measure used. Although the rate of charge bargaining was higher in the voluntary guidelines state, its impact on sentences was greater in the presumptive guidelines jurisdiction, as predicted by Reitz (1998). We further observe a dramatic difference in predictions from shifting the case characteristics underlying the summary measure. This result reveals that distributional differences (either due to the underlying criminal activity or due to the overall level of severity of punishment) can easily obscure the inferences necessary for understanding the operation of the systems. Our finding of differential charge bargaining in these two jurisdictions should provide a caution when comparing the results of studies of disparity in sentencing across jurisdiction types.
Starting Page	105
Ending Page	125
Page Count	21
File Format	PDF
ISSN	07484518
Journal	Journal of Quantitative Criminology
Volume Number	23
Issue Number	2
e-ISSN	15737799
Language	English
Publisher	Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers
Publisher Date	2007-03-13
Publisher Place	New York
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Sentencing Charge bargaining Plea bargaining Sentencing disparity Statistics Methodology of the Social Sciences Sociology Criminology & Criminal Justice
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Law Pathology and Forensic Medicine

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