Abstract
The majority of research examining prosecutorial discretion has focused on legal factors such as the seriousness of the offense or the extra-legal characteristics of the accused including race/ethnicity and gender. The amount of variance explained by court researchers, however, remains quite low. The present study extends previous research examining the primary determinants of prosecutor’s decision to dismiss or fully prosecute focusing on driving while intoxicated cases. We focus on the predictive contribution of the strength of evidence relative to legal and extra-legal variables. The data consist of 2,358 driving while intoxicated cases filed in Harris County, Texas during the first 8 months of 1999. The findings strongly support the inclusion of strength of evidence variables in court research and further suggest their past omission may have attributed significance to spurious relationships.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Over ninety-eight percent of defendants with appointed attorneys were convicted. Since this produced little variation in the case processing, these were dropped from the analysis. The analysis focused on retained attorney cases where there was more variability in outcome.
References
Albonetti, C. A. (1987). Prosecutorial discretion: Managing the effects of uncertainty. Law and Society Review, 21(2), 291–313.
Albonetti, C. A. (1991). An integration of theories to explain judicial discretion. Social Problems, 38(2), 247–266.
Albonetti, C. (2003). Model misspecification: Why aggregation of offense in federal sentencing equations is problematic. Criminology, 41, 1449–1456.
Ball, J. (2006). Is it a prosecutor’s world?: Determinants of count bargaining decisions. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 22(3), 241–260.
Beichner, D., & Spohn, C. (2005). Prosecutorial charging decisions in sexual assault cases: examining the impact of a specialized prosecution unit. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 16(4), 461–498.
Blumberg, A. (1967). Criminal justice. Chicago: Quandrangle.
Brereton, D., & Casper, J. D. (1981). Does it pay to plead guilty?: Differential sentencing and the functioning of criminal courts. Law and Society Review, 16(1), 45–70.
Clarke, S. H., & Kurtz, S. T. (1983). The importance of interim decisions to felony trial court decision. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 74(2), 476–518.
Emmelman, D. (1996). Trial by plea bargain: Case settlement as a product of recursive decisionmaking. Law and Society Review, 30(2), 335–360.
Flanagan, T. J., & Vaughn, M. S. (1996). Public opinion about police abuse of force. In W. Geller & H. Toch (Eds.), Police violence (pp. 113–128). New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.
Frohmann, L. (1997). Convictability and discordant locales: Recreating race, class, and gender ideologies in judicial decision making. Law and Society Review, 31(3), 531–556.
Garland, N. M. (2006). Criminal evidence. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hagan, J. (1974). Extra-legal attributes and criminal sentencing: An assessment of a sociological viewpoint. Law and Society Review, 8(3), 357–383.
Hepburn, J. R. (1980). The objective reality of evidence and the utility of systematic jury selection. Law and Human Behavior, 4(1,2), 89–101.
Holleran, D., Beichner, D., & Spohn, C. (2010). Examining charging agreement between prosecutors and police in rape cases. Crime and Delinquency, 56, 385–413.
Holmes, M. D., Hosch, H. M., Daudistel, H. C., & Perez, D. A. (1996). Ethnicity, legal resources, and felony dispositions in two southwestern jurisdictions. Justice Quarterly, 13(11), 11–30.
Katz, C. M., & Spohn, C. (1995). The effect of race and gender on bail outcomes: Test of an interactive model. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 19, 161–184.
Martin, Ma Eva, De Le Fuenta, L., Inmaculada De Le Fuente, L. E., & Garcia, J. (2007). The influence of sample type, presentation format, and strength of evidence on juror simulation research. Psychology, Crime and Law, 13(2), 139–153.
McPhail, B., & Jenness, V. (2005). To charge or not to charge?- that is the question: the pursuit of strategic advantage in prosecutorial decision making surrounding hate crime. Journal of Hate Studies, 4, 89–119.
Miller, F. W. (1970). The Decision to Charge a Suspect with a Crime. Boston: Little, Brown and Co.
Mustard, D. B. (2001). Racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in sentencing: Evidence from the U.S. federal courts. Journal of Law and Economics, 44, 285–314.
Myers, M. A., & Hagan, J. (1979). Private and public trouble: Prosecutors and the allocation of court resources. Social Problems, 26(4), 447–468.
Myers, M. A., & Talarico, S. M. (1987). The social contexts of criminal sentencing. New York: Springer.
Neubauer, D. W. (1974). Criminal Justice in Middle America. Morristown: General Learning.
Pollitz-Worden, A. (1995). The judge’s role in plea bargaining: An analysis of judges’ agreement with prosecutors’ sentencing recommendations. Justice Quarterly, 12(2), 257–278.
Rainville, G. (2001). An analysis of factors related to prosecutor sentencing preferences. Criminal Justice Policy Review, 12(4), 295–310.
Reiman, J. H., & Leighton, P. (2010). The rich get richer and the poor get prison: Ideology, class, and criminal justice (9th ed.). New York: Wiley.
Skolnick, P., & Shaw, J. I. (2001). A comparison of eyewitness and physical evidence on mock-juror decision making. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 28(5), 614–630.
Spears, J. W., & Spohn, C. C. (1997). The effect of evidence factors and victim characteristics on prosecutors’ charging decisions in sexual assault cases. Justice Quarterly, 14(3), 501–524.
Spohn, C. (1999). Gender and the sentencing of drug offenders: Is chivalry dead? Criminal Justice Policy Review, 9, 365–399.
Spohn, C., Beichner, D., & Davis-Frenzel, E. (2001). Prosecutorial justifications for sexual assault case rejection: Guarding the “Gateway to Justice.”. Social Problems, 48(2), 206–235.
Spohn, C., & Holleran, D. (2001). Prosecuting sexual assault: A comparison of charging decisions in sexual assault cases involving strangers, acquaintances, and intimate partners. Justice Quarterly 18, 651–688.
Steffensmeier, D. J., Kramer, J. H., & Ulmer, J. T. (1995). Age differences in sentencing. Justice Quarterly, 12(3), 701–719.
Steffensmeier, D., Ulmer, J. T., & Kramer, J. (1998). The interaction of race, gender, and age in criminal sentencing: The punishment cost of being young, black, and male. Criminology, 36, 763–798.
Steffensmeier, D., & Demuth, S. (2000). Ethnicity and sentencing outcomes in U.S. Federal Courts: Who is punished more harshly? American Sociological Review, 65, 705–729.
Tuch, S., & Weitzer, R. (1997). The polls-trends: Racial differences in attitudes toward the police. Public Opinion Quarterly, 61, 642–663.
Warren, P. (2011). Perceptions of police disrespect during traffic stops: A race-based analysis. Crime and Delinquency, 57(3), 356–376.
Withers, A. (2011). Texas legislature considers DWI deferred adjudication. Retrieved from http://www.smudailycampus.com/mobile/news/texas-legislature-considers-dwi-deferred-adjudication-1.2190540
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
McCoy, T., Salinas, P.R., Walker, J.T. et al. An Examination of the Influence of Strength of Evidence Variables in the Prosecution’s Decision to Dismiss Driving While Intoxicated Cases. Am J Crim Just 37, 562–579 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-011-9141-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-011-9141-3