NCJ Number
219913
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 24 Issue: 3 Dated: September 2007 Pages: 382-407
Date Published
September 2007
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This study sought to identify the factors that affect prosecutorial decisionmaking regarding substantial assistance departures for crack-cocaine and powder-cocaine defendants prosecuted in United States District Courts in 2000.
Abstract
Decisions to file a motion for a departure for substantial assistance in Federal criminal cases in which the offender is charged with drug offenses involving powder or crack cocaine were found to be affected by both legally relevant case characteristics and legally irrelevant offender characteristics. Prosecutors were less likely to file substantial assistance departure motions for offenders charged with offenses involving crack cocaine rather than powder cocaine. They were more likely to file motions for offenders facing mandatory minimum sentences. Offenders charged with more serious crimes and with more substantial criminal histories had a greater likelihood of receiving departures, as did female offenders, White offenders, and more educated offenders. In addition, the analysis revealed that African-American and Hispanic drug offenders were less likely than White drug offenders to receive departures for substantial assistance. Recently there has been a call for research that explores decisionmaking at stages prior to sentencing in the criminal justice process. Particularly, research is needed under a determinate sentencing system where judicial dispositions are usually restricted by guidelines, which increases the importance of earlier decisionmaking stages. As an answer to this call and in an attempt to build on current studies on the effects of departures as an intervening mechanism, and a source of unwarranted disparity, this study explored Federal sentencing data on offenders convicted of crack-cocaine and powder-cocaine offenses. Tables, references