NCJ Number
129550
Date Published
Unknown
Length
38 pages
Annotation
This study describes the nature of each of the published research studies on court case processing time, reviews the salient characteristics of the studies and their findings, critically assesses the research, and proposes ways to advance court delay as a field of criminological research.
Abstract
The major policies advocated as solutions to court delay include case screening, additional court resources, consolidated pretrial hearings, individual calendars, master calendars, crash programs, court rules, case monitoring, and speedy trial standards. Some studies have identified circumstances where delay-reduction policies apparently lower case processing time, but there are few consistent findings on the success or failure of particular policies. Overall, this review of existing research on court delay concludes that the research methods and procedures are highly disparate, occasionally suspect, and unlikely to build a cumulative body of knowledge. Few, if any, hypotheses about delay or delay reduction are consistently supported by the available evidence; and neither theoretical construct, policy orientation, nor disciplinary training provides a unifying dimension for this research tradition. The author's prescription for invigorating court delay research involves improvements in methodological rigor, attention to policy variables, and integration with criminological research. 1 table and 39-item bibliography