Judicial Response to Crime and the Criminal - A Utilitarian Perspective

• NCJ Number: 89257
• Author(s): T Orsagh
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 36 pages
• Grant Number(s): 79-NI-AX-0047
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice; US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper develops a theoretical model, based on utilitarian principles, to explain the societal response, via the judiciary, to offender attributes and to the overall crime rate.

Abstract

The theory provides a mechanism which explains commonly observed patterns of judicial behavior, as well as behavioral patterns specific to particular environments. The model's dependent variable is length of prison sentence, and its principal arguments involve offender and offense characteristics, resource costs, the availability of alternative sanctions instruments, and the community's tolerance for crime. This paper constructs an empirical version of the model using data for Georgia. It shows that the court pursues both utilitarian and egalitarian objectives but that these dual objectives are repudiated. The courts impose the egalitarian rule for some offender attributes but reject that same rule when the attribute is gender. Footnotes, a few tables, and about 50 references are supplied. (Author abstract modified)