NCJ Number
129089
Journal
Sociology and Social Research Volume: 75 Issue: 2 Dated: (January 1991) Pages: 80-88
Date Published
1991
Length
9 pages
Annotation
Focusing on the actions of police and court officials, this study examined the processing of 710 criminal homicide cases in Atlanta (Georgia) during 1978 to 1982.
Abstract
Data were collected from police investigative reports, arrest charges, and court records. Findings indicate that criminal justice officials were reasonably efficient in processing homicide cases. The only real exception related to police dispositions where some differences were noted depending on the circumstances of the cases. The data suggest a continuous uniformity in the rest of the processing stages of the system. If an arrest was made, the offender was nearly always charged with first degree murder. Indictments were returned in most cases with offenders generally being indicted for first degree murder. Most of those indicted offenders were later convicted on the basis of negotiated pleas to Voluntary Manslaughter with nearly all convictions resulting in prison sentences. If there is a "weak link" in terms of responding to violent crimes such as homicide, it is probably in the ability of police to solve homicides. It appears that most of the unsolved cases in Atlanta were "stranger" homicides, while the most common domestic homicides were fairly easily solved. 5 notes, 15 references, and 10 tables