NCJ Number
103943
Date Published
1986
Length
148 pages
Annotation
After explaining the purpose and design of an assessment of the impact of North Carolina's Fair Sentencing Act, a determinant sentencing law which became effective July 1, 1981, this manual describes the data collection and presents the data collection device, coding instructions, and a variable description list.
Abstract
Statewide data from 12 counties were collected on felony prosecution and sentencing from police departments, arrest reports, police investigation reports, and court files over 3 months in 1979 and again in 1981. Variables pertain to witness testimony; evidence quality; prison staff; probation/parole officers; and defendants' social, demographic, and criminal history. Variables also encompass case processing from arrest and charging through disposition. The four study files include two data files and two files containing control cards. Each case in the data files provides data on one defendant. There are 279 variables for 1,378 cases in the 1979 data file and 322 variables for 1,280 cases in the 1981 data files. Both data files have logical record lengths of 80 characters.