NCJ Number
111567
Journal
American Bar Foundation Research Journal Volume: 1987 Issue: 2 and 3 Dated: (Spring-Summer 1987) Pages: 461-505
Date Published
1987
Length
45 pages
Annotation
This case study of criminal process in a middle-sized western city in the United States employs quantitative data, interviews, and library research to explore the politics of criminal process and its impact on the operative policies of the criminal courts from 1964 through 1980.
Abstract
The research reveals significant, policy change but a very elusive relationship between politics and policy. Judges and prosecutors preserve a significant measure of autonomy for dealing with the bulk of their caseload by giving up much of their independence in those cases that are inescapably politicized. Both judges and prosecutors use this partial political insulation to advance their own versions of criminological wisdom. On the other hand, they are constrained by the prevailing ethos and by institutional limitations to operate well within conventional definitions of crime and criminality -- even when those conventional views run counter to their own practical experience. (Publisher abstract)