Factors Affecting Postarrest Dispositions: A Model for Analysis

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Crime and Criminal Justice in the United States

“…The consensus of prior research goes against a simplistic discrimination thesis-in the aggregate, blacks tend to be convicted less than whites (Burke and Turk 1975;Petersilia 1983;Wilbanks 1987, appendix). Several researchers, however, have argued that this finding stems from a confounding of case mix (i.e., type of crime charged) with race.…”

The effect of prior record in sentencing research: An examination of the assumption that any measure is adequate

“…In fact, it has been shown to be the most important factor in explaining the judge's decision to incarcerate or not (Dawson 1969;Felony Arrests 1977;Harries 1978;Sutton 1978). In addition, prior record has been shown to be one of the strongest predictors, along with the severity of the offense, of the length of the sentence (Burke and Turk 1975;Neubauer 1979;Sutton 1978;Tiffany, Avichai, and Peters 1975). Thus analysts who examine sentencing decisions for evidence of racial or gender discrimination without controlling adequately for this important variable, probably overestimate the amount of discrimination present in the system.…”

Race and the Decision to Arrest: An Analysis of Warrants Issued

“…Whether the analysis focuses upon police (Weiner and Willie, 1971;Terry, 1967b; Black and Reiss, 1970;Green, 1970), courts (Burke and Turk, 1975;Chiricos and Waldo, 1975;Terry, 1967a), or probation officers (Hagan, 1975), race of offender is not found to be significantly related to the disposition when factors such as severity of offense and prior arrests are controlled. The analyses of capital punishment by Judson et al (1969), analyses of court dispositions by Thornberry, in 1973(see, however, Wellford, 1975, Pope (1976), and Ferdinand and Luchterhand (1970), and analyses of shock probation by Petersen and Friday (1975) are rare in their ability to demonstrate a significant relationship between race and disposition.…”