On trial
Wrongful convictions and prototypical black features: Can a face-type facilitate misidentifications?
Heather Kleider-Offutt et al.
Legal and Criminological Psychology, forthcoming
Method: Participants rated the face stereotypicality of Black men exonerated by the Innocence Project (IP) with DNA evidence, who were incarcerated due to eyewitness misidentification (IP eyewitness) and for non-misidentification reasons (IP other).
Results: Higher stereotypicality-face ratings were given to IP eyewitness exonerates than to IP other exonerates regardless of participant race. Moreover, the face ratings were unrelated to the race of the eyewitness in the actual case (i.e., cross-race, same race), suggesting that cross-race misidentification was not associated with higher stereotypicality ratings of the IP eyewitness exonerates.
Mandatory Minimums and the Sentencing of Federal Drug Crimes
David Bjerk
Journal of Legal Studies, January 2017, Pages 93-128
Abstract:
The US federal mandatory minimum sentences are controversial not only because of the length of the mandatory sentences for even first-time offenders but also because eligibility quantities for crack cocaine crimes are small compared with those for other drug offenses. This paper shows that the impact of these mandatory minimums on sentencing is quite nuanced. A large fraction of mandatory-minimum-eligible offenders, particularly first timers, are able to avoid these mandatory minimums. Moreover, despite lower eligibility thresholds for crack-related offenses, a smaller fraction of those convicted of crack-related offenses are eligible for mandatory minimums relative to those convicted of other drug offenses. Furthermore, while being just eligible for a mandatory minimum increases sentence length on average, the impact is not uniform across drug offenses. Notably, sentences for crack offenders are generally sufficiently long such that, on average, sentences for crack offenders are not impacted by eligibility for a mandatory minimum.
Rape, Race, and Capital Punishment: An Enduring Cultural Legacy of Lethal Vengeance?
John Cochran et al.
Race and Justice, forthcoming
Abstract:
Historical analyses of southern statutes (i.e., Slave Codes, Black Codes, "Jim Crow," etc.) and their enforcement reveals evidence of an enduring cultural legacy prescribing lethal vengeance to Blacks who violate White sensibilities, especially for Black males accused of sexually assaulting White females. Using a population of official data on capital murder trials in North Carolina (1977-2009), this study examines the degree to which this cultural legacy endures to the present by examining the joint effects of offender's race and rape/sexual assault on the capital sentencing outcomes of capital murder trial involving White female victims. Our findings reveal support for the continuing endurance of this cultural legacy of lethal vengeance.
Bargaining With Asymmetric Information: An Empirical Study of Plea Negotiations
Bernardo Silveira
Econometrica, March 2017, Pages 419-452
Abstract:
This paper empirically investigates how sentences to be assigned at trial impact plea bargaining. The analysis is based on the model of bargaining with asymmetric information by Bebchuk, 1984. I provide conditions for the nonparametric identification of the model, propose a consistent nonparametric estimator, and implement it using data on criminal cases from North Carolina. Employing the estimated model, I evaluate how different sentencing reforms affect the outcome of criminal cases. My results indicate that lower mandatory minimum sentences could greatly reduce the total amount of incarceration time assigned by the courts, but may increase conviction rates. In contrast, the broader use of non-incarceration sentences for less serious crimes reduces the number of incarceration convictions, but has a very small effect over the total assigned incarceration time. I also consider the effects of a ban on plea bargains. Depending on the case characteristics, over 20 percent of the defendants who currently receive incarceration sentences would be acquitted if plea bargains were forbidden.
Race, Plea, and Charge Reduction: An Assessment of Racial Disparities in the Plea Process
Christi Metcalfe & Ted Chiricos
Justice Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
With the growing recognition of the salience of prosecutorial discretion, attention to biases in the earlier phases of case processing is increasing. Still, few studies have considered the influence of defendant race and race/sex within the plea process. The present study uses a sample of felony cases to assess the influence of race and race/sex on the mode of disposition, similarities and differences in the factors that predict the likelihood of a plea across race, and potential racial disparities in the plea value received pertaining to a charge reduction. The findings suggest that blacks, and black males in particular, are less likely to plea, and are expected to receive a lower value for their plea. Also, the factors that predict the likelihood of a plea are substantively different across race. Conditioning effects of race and sex are found in the likelihood of a plea and probabilities of a charge reduction.
Decomposing disproportionate minority contact in juvenile justice
Suman Majumdar
Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, forthcoming
Abstract:
The objective of this study was to decompose racial disparity in juvenile justice decision-making into a part explained by differing characteristics of racial groups, and an unexplained part often attributed to discrimination. Individual case-level data from Alabama and logistic regression were used to model detention, petition, and disposition decisions in the juvenile justice system. Decomposition of racial disparity between white and black juveniles using the nonlinear Blinder-Oaxaca methodology suggested that about a half to three fourths of the racial gaps in the three juvenile justice decision points were caused either by discrimination or unobserved predictors. Decomposition of racial disparity in juvenile justice can help devise effective public policy by quantifying the extent to which specific policies can reduce disproportionate minority contact.
Race, Juvenile Transfer, and Sentencing Preferences: Findings From a Randomized Experiment
Peter Lehmann et al.
Race and Justice, forthcoming
Abstract:
In light of the expansion of punitive "get tough" policies for juvenile offenders, some researchers have uncovered evidence that juveniles who are waived to the adult court receive more severe sanctions than retained juveniles. Theoretically, the transfer status of delinquents may serve as a cognitive heuristic in criminal justice system (CJS) actors' "focal concern" judgments. Understood through this framework, transfer status may signify to CJS workers, and especially Whites, that a juvenile offender is especially dangerous or blameworthy, thereby justifying harsher punishments. To examine these relationships, two experimental vignettes were embedded in a national survey of CJS workers in which the transfer status of the offender was randomized. Analyses reveal that respondents did not prefer harsher sentences for the transferred violent male delinquent, but they did recommend significantly harsher sentences for the transferred nonviolent female delinquent. White respondents, however, were especially punitive in their sentencing preferences for the transferred violent male delinquent. The findings are partially consistent with the theoretical expectation that transfer status functions as a heuristic in CJS actors' assessments of juvenile offenders. The results also suggest that White CJS workers may racially typify violent youth who have been transferred to adult court.
Is a Plea Really a Bargain? An Analysis of Plea and Trial Dispositions in New York City
Besiki Kutateladze & Victoria Lawson
Crime & Delinquency, forthcoming
Abstract:
The study challenges the common notion that plea bargaining is necessarily beneficial to defendants. It examines the factors influencing the likelihood of taking a misdemeanor case to trial, and the probability of acquittal upon reaching trial. Defendants charged with more serious crimes, persons crimes, crimes with victims, and represented by private attorneys were more likely to go to trial than to be pleaded out. By contrast, very few factors influenced trial outcomes, and the effect of race was fairly weak. Perhaps most important is the finding that two in five cases going to trial resulted in acquittal, showing that guilt is not a foregone conclusion which may provide leverage to defendants in the plea-bargaining process.
Seeing Red: Disgust Reactions to Gruesome Photographs in Color (but not in Black and White) Increase Convictions
Jessica Salerno
Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, forthcoming
Abstract:
Jurors are often exposed to emotionally disturbing gruesome photographs of victims of extreme violence. Judges must determine whether the informational value of these photographs outweighs their prejudicial effect on jurors and are left to their assumptions about juror psychology to do so. The current research draws upon the affect infusion model (AIM; Forgas, 1995) to investigate the affective mechanism through which gruesome photographs might operate. A mock jury experiment presented online adults (n = 193) with murder trial evidence that included verbal descriptions of the victim's injuries and neutral photographs in all conditions. Participants were randomly assigned to view (a) only the nongruesome photographs or additional gruesome photographs of the victim in (b) color, or (c) black and white (B&W). Color gruesome (vs. nongruesome) photographs increased convictions via the disgust they elicited. Consistent with the AIM, this was especially so for mock jurors with relatively higher awareness of their bodily sensations. The effects of gruesome photographs in color on disgust and verdicts were eliminated, however, when the same photographs were presented in B&W. A second experiment (n = 354) replicated these results and also revealed that viewing color gruesome photographs significantly reduced mock jurors' sensitivity to a manipulation of defense evidence strength - especially among jurors with relatively higher bodily awareness. Thus, gruesome photographs can increase convictions via direct and indirect affect infusion. Presenting gruesome photographs in B&W might reduce jurors' emotional reactions while maintaining their probative information.
Jurors' Presumption of Innocence
Nicholas Scurich & Richard John
Journal of Legal Studies, January 2017, Pages 187-206
Abstract:
The presumption of innocence explicitly forbids jurors from using official suspicion or indictment as evidence of guilt in a criminal trial. A behavioral experiment tested whether jurors follow this prescription. It revealed that, compared to when a suspect had been merely named, jurors thought that the individual was significantly more likely to be guilty after a detective referred the case to the district attorney and when he was formally charged and thus a criminal defendant. A judicial instruction to presume innocence reduced jurors' beliefs in the defendant's guilt. Regression analyses indicate that jurors' prior beliefs predicted their posterior beliefs and further that their prior beliefs were predictive of verdicts even after accounting for their posterior beliefs. The findings suggest that jurors make different assumptions about the guilt of a criminal defendant before the introduction of evidence and that these assumptions influence their overall evaluation of the case and their verdict.
The Ability to Detect False Statements as a Function of the Type of Statement and the Language Proficiency of the Statement Provider
Jacqueline Evans et al.
Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, forthcoming
Abstract:
The ability to detect deception is critical in criminal and investigative contexts. Society continues to become more diverse as international travel becomes more commonplace; as such, it has never been so essential to understand the potential impact of speakers' language proficiency on assessing their credibility. Recently, deception researchers have turned their attention to statements provided by nonnative English speakers, thus far yielding inconsistent results. To further investigate this issue, community members, who were classified into 4 English proficiency groups (i.e., fluent, higher proficiency, medium proficiency, and lowest proficiency), provided 4 statements. These included true and false statements that were autobiographical, and true and false statements that were opinion centered. Observers rated the likelihood that these speakers were being truthful or deceptive. Observers' accuracy and discrimination were best for the lowest-proficiency speakers; the other proficiency groups did not differ from each other. This suggests that lie detection is more effective when speakers provide statements in their nonnative language. However, relative to fluent English speakers there was a smaller truth bias for the lowest-proficiency speakers, which suggests that if nonnative speakers provide their statements in their nonnative language they may be judged as more deceptive than their native-speaker counterparts. Overall the present findings highlight the need for additional research, given the disparate results in the literature and the lack of clear policies regarding how nonnative speakers' credibility should be assessed.
Show Me What Happened: Analyzing Use of Force through Analysis of Body-Worn Camera Footage
Dale Willits & David Makin
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, forthcoming
Objectives: Using temporal sequencing of unedited police body-worn camera (BWC) footage of use of force incidents, we test four hypotheses to understand how incident-characteristics influence use of force, duration of that force, and the type and severity of force used by police.
Method: We code and analyze using data visualization techniques and regression analysis unedited BWC footage involving use of force in a single police agency in the United States.
Results: Use of force occurs relatively early in most interactions, though gender, race, and behavioral factors partially explain when and how much force is used. Regression results indicate that force is used more quickly against Black suspects and males. Suspect resistance predicts both time to force (TtF) and the duration of force applied. Finally, police are more likely to use greater levels of force in longer, more drawn-out interactions.
Conclusions: Our results appear to support existing theories for disproportionate use of force, though we caution restraint in generalizing our results. We find support only at our temporal level (TtF) and do not find support for the duration or severity of that force used. These temporal variables provide additional context toward better understanding and further contextualizing use of force by police.
Economic freedom and public, non-market institutions: Evidence from criminal prosecution
Claudio Detotto & Bryan McCannon
Economics of Governance, May 2017, Pages 107-128
Abstract:
Economic freedom, which measures the protection of property and freedom to contract, is generally argued to capture the quality of a state's institutions regarding market activity. As to be expected, numerous studies have found that economic freedom is associated with good economic outcomes. Additionally, much effort in public economics has worked to identify the features of quality non-market public institutions. No effort has been made to connect institutions that influence market activity and institutions that govern non-market activities. We take a first step. We employ a linear programming method for measuring relative efficiencies known as Data Envelopment Analysis. We apply this technique to information on the use of inputs to the production of the prosecution of crime across the thousands of local prosecutor offices in the U.S. We then compare state-level measurements of prosecution productivity with data on state-level economic freedom from the Economic Freedom of North America index. We show that there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between the two. Those states that develop institutions respecting economic freedom also tend to be the states that develop efficient publicly-provided services. The results are extended to complementary economic freedom measurements.
Timing Law School
Frank McIntyre & Michael Simkovic
Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, June 2017, Pages 258-300
Abstract:
We investigate whether economic conditions at labor market entry predict long-term differences in law graduate earnings. We find that unemployment levels at graduation continue to predict law earnings premiums within four years after graduation for earners at the high end and middle of the distribution. However, the relation fades as law graduates gain experience and the difference in lifetime earnings is moderate. Outcomes data available prior to matriculation do not predict unemployment or starting salaries at graduation. Earnings premiums are not predicted by BLS projected job openings. Although changes in cohort size predict changes in the percent of law graduates practicing law, we find little evidence that changes in cohort size predict changes in earnings. This suggests that law graduates who switch to other occupations when law cohort sizes increase are not hurt financially by larger cohorts. For medium- to high-earning graduates, successfully timing law school predicts a higher value of a law degree ex-post, but simulations show that no strategy for ex-ante timing is readily available.