Presentation
County-Level Variation in the Effects of Race and Ethnicity on Pleading Guilty
Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology
(2015)
Abstract
Though approximately 95% of all convictions are obtained through a guilty plea (BJS, 2013), the effects of legal and extralegal variables on the likelihood of pleading guilty have been significantly understudied, just as the remainder of court processing outcomes that occur prior to sentencing. Pleading guilty is particularly important because it can have lasting impacts on criminal defendants’ course through the criminal justice system and may increase their punishment severity (see, e.g. Ulmer & Bradley, 2006; Bushway, et al, 2014). The current study will examine the effect of race and ethnicity on the likelihood of pleading guilty in a sample of large urban counties, with an examination of inter-jurisdictional differences. This study will focus on the effects of both race and ethnicity on pleading guilty and will include Hispanic defendants. In addition, a multi-level hierarchical model will be used with 40 large urban counties to study any contextual differences across counties. The current paper will add to the literature in three key ways by further studying what factors are associated with pleading guilty, including Hispanic ethnicity, and investigating between-county variation in the effect of race and ethnicity on the likelihood of pleading guilty.
Disciplines
Publication Date
November 20, 2015
Location
Washington, D.C.
Citation Information
Jacqueline Lee. "County-Level Variation in the Effects of Race and Ethnicity on Pleading Guilty" Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology (2015) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jacqueline-lee/7/