Prosecutorial discretion and the imposition of mandatory minimum sentences

Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency

Volumn 44, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 427-458

  Ulmer, Jeffery T ^a   Kurlychek, Megan C ^b   Kramer, John H ^a  

^a PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK   (United States)

Author keywords

Courts; Mandatory sentences; Prosecutorial discretion; Sentencing

Indexed keywords

EID: 34948837815     PISSN: 00224278     EISSN: 1552731X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0022427807305853     Document Type: Article

References (78)

1. Adams, Kenneth and Charles Cutshall. 1987. " Refusing to Prosecute Minor Offenses: The Relative Influence of Legal and Extralegal Factors." Justice Quarterly 4: 595-609.
2. Albonetti, Celesta. 1986. " Criminality, Prosecutorial Screening, and Uncertainty: Toward a Theory of Discretionary Decision Making in Felony Case Processing." Criminology 23: 623-44.
3. _. 1987. " Prosecutorial Discretion: The Effects of Uncertainty." Law and Society Review 21: 291-313.
4. _. 1991. " An Integration of Theories to Explain Judicial Discretion." Social Problems 38: 247-66.
5. _. 1998. " The Role of Gender and Departures in the Sentencing of Defendants Convicted of a White Collar Offense Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines." Pp. 3-48 in Sociology of Crime, Law, and Deviance, edited by J. Ulmer. Greenwich, CT: JAI.
6. Albonetti, Celesta and John Hepburn. 1996. " Prosecutorial Discretion to Defer Criminalization: The Effects of Defendant's Ascribed and Achieved Status Characteristics." Journal of Quantitative Criminology 12 (1). 63-81.
7. Alozie, Nicholas O. and C. Wayne Johnston. 2000. " Probing the Limits of Female Advantage in Criminal Processing: Pretrial Diversion of Drug Offenders in an Urban County." Justice System Journal 21 (3). 239-59.
8. Barkan, Steven and Steven Cohn. 2005. " Why Whites Favor Spending More Money to Fight Crime: The Role of Racial Prejudice." Social Problems 52 (2). 300-14.
9. Beckett, Katherine and Theodore Sasson. 2000. The Politics of Injustice: Crime and Punishment in America. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
10. Bjerk, David. 2005. " Making the Crime Fit the Penalty: The Role of Prosecutorial Discretion Under Mandatory Minimum Sentencing." Journal of Law and Economics 48: 591-625.
11. Blumer, Herbert. 1955. " Reflections on Theory of Race Relations " Pp. 3-21 in Race Relations in World Perspective, edited by A. W. Lind. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
12. Bobo, Lawrence and Vincent Hutchings. 1996. " Perceptions of Racial Group Competition: Extending Blumer's Theory of Group Position to a Multiracial Social Context." American Sociological Review 61: 951-72.
13. Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. 1997. " Rethinking Racism: Toward a Structural Interpretation." American Sociological Review 62 (3). 465-80.
14. Brereton, David and Jonathan Casper. 1981. " Does It Pay to Plead Guilty? Differential Sentencing and the Functioning of Criminal Courts." Law and Society Review 16 (1). 45-70.
15. Bridges, George S. and Sara Steen. 1998. " Racial Disparities in Official Assessments of Juvenile Offenders." American Sociological Review 63 (4). 554-71.
16. Britt, Chester. 2000. " Social Context and Racial Disparities in Punishment Decisions." Justice Quarterly 17 (4). 707-32.
17. Bryk, Anthony and Stephen Raudenbush. 1992. Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
18. Bynum, Timothy S. 1982. " Prosecutorial Discretion and the Implementation of a Legislative Mandate " Pp. 47-59 in Implementing Criminal Justice Policies, edited by M. Morash. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
19. Chiricos, Ted, Kelly Welch, and Marc Gertz. 2004. " Racial Typification of Crime and Support for Punitive Measures." Criminology 42 (2). 359-90.
20. Crawford, Charles. 2000. " Gender, Race, and Habitual Offender Sentencing in Florida." Criminology 38 (1). 263-80.
21. Crawford, Charles, Ted Chiricos, and Gary Kleck. 1998. " Race, Racial Threat, and Sentencing of Habitual Offenders." Criminology 36 (3). 481-513.
22. Curry, Theodore R., Gang Lee, and S. Fernando Rodriguez. 2004. " Does Victim Gender Increase Sentence Severity? Further Explanations of Gender Dynamics and Sentencing Outcomes." Crime & Delinquency 50 (3). 319-43.
23. Demuth, Stephen and Darrell Steffensmeier. 2004. " The Impact of Gender and Race-Ethnicity in the Pretrial Release Process." Social Problems 51 (2). 222-42.
24. Dixon, Jo. 1995. " The Organizational Context of Criminal Sentencing." American Journal of Sociology 100: 1157-98.
25. Emmelman, Debra. 1996. " Trial by Plea Bargain: Case Settlement as a Product of Recursive Decision Making." Law and Society Review 30 (2). 335-60.
26. Engen, Rodney and Randy Gainey. 2000. " Modeling the Effects of Legally-Relevant and Extra-Legal Factors Under Sentencing Guidelines: The Rules Have Changed." Criminology 38: 1207-30.
27. Engen, Rodney, Randy Gainey, Robert Crutchfield, and Joseph Weis. 2003. " Discretion and Disparity Under Sentencing Guidelines: The Role of Departures and Structured Sentencing Alternatives." Criminology 41: 99-130.
28. Engen, Rodney and Sara Steen. 2000. " The Power to Punish: Discretion and Sentencing Reform in the War on Drugs." American Journal of Sociology 105: 1357-95.
29. Eisenstein, James, Roy Flemming, and Peter Nardulli. 1988. The Contours of Justice: Communities and Their Courts. Boston: Little, Brown.
30. Farrell, Jill. 2003. " Mandatory Minimum Firearm Penalties: A Source of Sentencing Disparity." Justice Research and Policy 5 (1). 95-115.
31. Fearn, Noelle. 2005. " A Multilevel Analysis of Community Effects on Criminal Sentencing." Justice Quarterly 22: 452-87.
32. Ferdinand, Theordore. 1992. Boston's Lower Criminal Courts, 1814-1850. Newark: University of Delaware Press.
33. Fisher, George. 2003. Plea Bargaining's Triumph. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
34. Flemming, Roy B., Peter F. Nardulli, and James Eisenstein. 1992. The Craft of Justice: Politics and Work in Criminal Court Communities. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
35. Free, Marvin. 2002. " Race and Presentencing Decisions in the United States: A Summary and Critique of the Research." Criminal Justice Review 27 (2). 203-32.
36. Frohmann, Lisa. 1991. " Discrediting Victims' Allegations of Sexual Assault: Prosecutorial Accounts of Case Rejections." Social Problems 38: 213-26.
37. Garland, David. 2001. Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
38. Griffin, Timothy and John Wooldredge. 2006. " Sex Based Disparities in Felony Dispositions Before Versus After Sentencing Guidelines." Criminology 44 (4). 893-924.
39. Hofer, Paul. 2000. " Federal Sentencing for Violent and Drug Trafficking Crimes Involving Firearms: Recent Changes and Prospects for Improvement." American Criminal Law Review 37 (4). 41-73.
40. Huebner, Beth and Timothy Bynum. 2006. " An Analysis of Parole Decision Making Using a Sample of Sex Offenders: A Focal Concerns Perspective." Criminology 44 (4). 961-92.
41. Jacobs, David, Jason Carmichael, and Stephanie Kent. 2005. " Vigilantism, Current Racial Threat, and Death Sentences " American Sociological Review 70 (4). 656-77.
42. Jacoby, Joan. 1979. " The Charging Policies of Prosecutors " Pp. 75-97 in The Prosecutor, edited by William McDonald. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
43. Johnson, Brian D. 2005. " Contextual Disparities in Guideline Departures: Courtroom Social Contexts, Guideline Compliance, and Extralegal Disparities in Criminal Sentencing." Criminology 43 (3). 761-98.
44. _. 2006. " The Multilevel Context of Judicial Sentencing: Integrating Judge and County Level Influences." Criminology 44 (2). 259-98.
45. Kautt, Paula. 2002. " Location, Location, Location: Interdistrict and Intercircuit Variation in Sentencing Outcomes for Federal Drug-Trafficking Offenses." Justice Quarterly 19 (4). 633-71.
46. Kautt, Paula and Miriam Delone. 2006. " Sentencing Outcomes Under Competing But Coexisting Sentencing Interventions: Untying the Gordian Knot." Criminal Justice Review 31 (2). 105-31.
47. Kautt, Paula and Cassia Spohn. 2002. " Cracking Down on Black Drug Offenders? Testing for Interactions Among Offenders' Race, Drug Type, and Sentencing Strategy in Federal Drug Sentences." Justice Quarterly 19 (1). 1-35.
48. Kingsnorth, Rodney F. and Randall C. MacIntosh. 2004. " Domestic Violence: Predictors of Victim Support for Official Action." Justice Quarterly 21 (2). 301-28.
49. Kingsnorth, Rodney, Randall MacIntosh, and Sandra Sutherland. 2002. " Criminal Charge or Probation Violation? Prosecutorial Discretion and Implications for Research in Criminal Court Processing." Criminology 40 (3). 553-79.
50. Kramer, John H. and Jeffery Ulmer. 2002. " Downward Departures for Serious Violent Offenders: Local Court 'Corrections' to Pennsylvania's Sentencing Guidelines." Criminology 40 (4). 601-36.
51. Loftin, Colin, Milton Heumann, and David McDowall. 1983. " Mandatory Sentencing and Firearms Violence: Evaluating an Alternative to Gun Control." Law and Society Review 17: 287-318.
52. Miethe, Terence. 1987. " Charging and Plea Bargaining Practices Under Determinate Sentencing: An Investigation of the Hydraulic Displacement of Discretion." Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 78 (1). 155-76.
53. Miller, JoAnn Langley and John Sloan. 1994. " A Study of Criminal Justice Discretion." Journal of Criminal Justice 22 (2). 107-23.
54. Nardulli, Peter F., James Eisenstein, and Roy B. Flemming. 1988. The Tenor of Justice: Criminal Courts and the Guilty Plea Process. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
55. Rose, Dina and Todd Clear. 1998. " Incarceration, Social Capital, and Crime: Implications for Social Disorganization." Criminology 36 (3). 441-81.
56. Savelsberg, Joachim. 1992. " Law That Does Not Fit Society: Sentencing Guidelines as a Neoclassical Reaction to the Dilemmas of Substantivized Law." American Journal of Sociology 97: 1346-81.
57. Schmidt, Janell and Ellen Hochstedler Steury. 1989. " Prosecutorial Discretion in Filing Charges in Domestic Violence Cases." Criminology 27 (3). 487-509.
58. Smith, Douglas A. 1986. " The Plea Bargaining Controversy." Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 77 (3). 949-68.
59. Spears, J. and Cassia Spohn. 1997. " The Effect of Evidence Factors and Victim Characteristics on Prosecutors' Charging Decisions." Justice Quarterly 16: 559-78.
60. Spohn, Cassia. 2000. " Thirty Years of Sentencing Reform: The Quest for a Racially Neutral Sentencing Process." Criminal Justice: The National Institute of Justice Journal 3: 427-501.
61. Spohn, Cassia and Miriam DeLone. 2000. " When Does Race Matter? An Analysis of the Conditions Under Which Race Affects Sentence Severity " Sociology of Crime, Law, and Deviance 2: 3-37.
62. Spohn, Cassia and David Holleran. 2000. " The Imprisonment Penalty Paid by Young Unemployed Black and Hispanic Male Offenders." Criminology 38: 281-306.
63. _. 2001. " Prosecuting Sexual Assault: A Comparison of Charging Decisions in Sexual Assault Cases Involving Strangers, Acquaintances, and Intimate Partners." Justice Quarterly 18 (3). 651-88.
64. Stanko, Elizabeth A. 1981-1982. " The Impact of Victim Assessment on Prosecutors' Screening Decisions: The Case of the New Your County District Attorney's Office." Law and Society Review 16 (2). 225-39.
65. Steffensmeier, Darrell and Stephen Demuth. 2000. " Ethnicity and Sentencing Outcomes in U.S. Federal Courts: Who is Punished More Harshly? " American Sociological Review 65: 705-29.
66. _. 2001. " Ethnicity and Judges' Sentencing Decisions: Hispanic-Black-White Comparisons." Criminology 39: 145-78.
67. Steffensmeier, Darrell, Jeffery T. Ulmer, and John Kramer. 1998. " The Interaction of Race, Gender, and Age in Criminal Sentencing: The Punishment Cost of Being Young, Black, and Male " Criminology 36: 763-98.
68. Stith, Kate and Jose A. Cabranes. 1998. Fear of Judging: Sentencing Guidelines in the Federal Courts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
69. Tonry, Michael. 1992. " Mandatory Penalties " Pp. 243-73 in Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, vol. 16, edited by M. Tonry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
70. Ulmer, Jeffery T. 1997. Social Worlds of Sentencing: Court Communities Under Sentencing Guidelines. Albany: State University of New York Press.
71. Ulmer, Jeffery and Mindy S. Bradley. 2006. " Variation in Trial Penalties Among Serious Violent Offenses." Criminology 44 (3). 631-70.
72. Ulmer, Jeffery and Brian D. Johnson. 2004. " Sentencing in Context: A Multilevel Analysis." Criminology 42 (1). 137-77.
73. Ulmer, Jeffery T. and John H. Kramer. 1996. " Court Communities Under Sentencing Guidelines: Dilemmas of Formal Rationality and Sentencing Disparity " Criminology 34 (3). 306-32.
74. U.S. Sentencing Commission. 1991. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines: A Report on the Operation of the Guidelines System and Short-Term Impacts on Disparity in Sentencing, Use of Incarceration, and Prosecutorial Discretion and Plea Bargaining. Washington, DC: Author.
75. Vogel, Mary Elizabeth. (1999) " The Social Origins of Plea Bargaining: Conflict and the Law in the Process of State Formation, 1830-1860 " Law and Society Review 33: 216-46.
76. Weidner, Robert, Richard Frase, and Jennifer Schultz. 2005. " The Impact of Contextual Factors on the Decision to Imprison in Large Urban Jurisdictions: A Multilevel Analysis." Crime & Delinquency 51 (3). 400-24.
77. Wooldredge, John and Amy Thistlethwaite. 2004. " Bilevel Disparities in Court Dispositions for Intimate Assault." Criminology 42 (2). 417-56.
78. Zatz, Marjorie. 2000. " The Convergence of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class on Court Decisionmaking: Looking Toward the 21st Century." Criminal Justice: The National Institute of Justice Journal 3: 503-52.