Griffin Christopher L, Sloan Frank A, Eldred Lindsey M
William & Mary Law School.
J. Alexander McMahon Professor of Health Policy and Management and Professor of Economics, Duke University.
William Mary Law Rev. 2014 Apr;55(4):1365-1427.
Much empirical analysis has documented racial disparities at the beginning and end stages of a criminal case. However, our understanding about the perpetuation of - and even corrections for - differential outcomes as the process unfolds remains less than complete. This Article provides a comprehensive examination of criminal dispositions using all DWI cases in North Carolina during the period 2001-2011, focusing on several major decision points in the process. Starting with pretrial hearings and culminating in sentencing results, we track differences in outcomes by race and gender. Before sentencing, significant gaps emerge in the severity of pretrial release conditions that disadvantage black and Hispanic defendants. Yet when prosecutors decide whether to pursue charges, we observe an initial correction mechanism: Hispanic men are almost two-thirds more likely to have those charges dropped relative to white men. Although few cases survive after the plea bargaining stage, a second correction mechanism arises: Hispanic men are substantially less likely to receive harsher sentences and are sent to jail for significantly less time relative to white men. The first mechanism is based in part on prosecutors' reviewing the strength of the evidence but much more on declining to invest scarce resources in the pursuit of defendants who fail to appear for trial. The second mechanism seems to follow more directly from judicial discretion to reverse decisions made by law enforcement. We discuss possible explanations for these novel empirical results and review methods for more precisely identifying causal mechanisms in criminal justice.
许多实证分析都记录了刑事案件起始和终结阶段存在的种族差异。然而，对于随着案件进程差异结果的持续存在——甚至是对这些差异结果的纠正，我们的理解仍不完整。本文利用北卡罗来纳州2001年至2011年期间所有的酒驾案件，对刑事处分进行了全面考察，重点关注该过程中的几个主要决策点。从审前听证会开始，到量刑结果结束，我们追踪了按种族和性别划分的结果差异。在量刑之前，审前释放条件的严苛程度出现了显著差距，这对黑人和西班牙裔被告不利。然而，当检察官决定是否提起指控时，我们观察到了一种初始纠正机制：相对于白人男性，西班牙裔男性被撤销指控的可能性几乎高出三分之二。尽管在认罪谈判阶段之后很少有案件继续进行，但出现了第二种纠正机制：相对于白人男性，西班牙裔男性被判处更严厉刑罚的可能性大幅降低，并且入狱时间明显更短。第一种机制部分基于检察官对证据力度的审查，但更多是基于拒绝将稀缺资源投入到追捕未出庭受审的被告身上。第二种机制似乎更直接地源于司法自由裁量权，以推翻执法部门做出的决定。我们讨论了这些新颖实证结果的可能解释，并回顾了在刑事司法中更精确识别因果机制的方法。
