Kathleen Auerhahn

Just another crime? : Examining disparity in homicide sentencing

Analyses of disparity in sentencing most frequently use general felony court samples. Because of this, little is known about the specific patterns of sentencing disparity among defendants convicted of criminal homicide. Using a sample of defendants adjudicated guilty of homicide in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, over the period 1995–2000, this research seeks to describe and explain patterns of sentencing with reference to legal and extralegal defendant and case characteristics. The findings indicate that it is primarily legally relevant variables that influence sentencing outcomes in homicide cases; however, some evidence is found for case processing effects as well as for the operation of criminal stereotypes in the generation of sentence disparities. Implications of these findings for research designs and theory development are discussed.

Adjudication Outcomes in Intimate and Non-Intimate Homicides

Most prior research on intimate partner (IP) homicide sanctioning is limited by research designs that analyze outcomes only for defendants charged or convicted of IP homicide, or that focus on female offenders. These studies preclude comparisons of criminal justice responses to intimate and non-intimate homicide cases, as well as comparisons of male and female offenders. Using an original data set of homicide cases adjudicated guilty in Philadelphia during the period 1995 to 2000 ( N = 1137), intimate and non-intimate homicide cases are examined in bivariate and multivariate contingency table analyses. Contrary to earlier research suggesting harsher treatment for women convicted of IP homicide, the results indicate that male defendants convicted of IP homicide are treated more severely than female defendants at all examined stages of the criminal justice process. Additionally, male defendants are sanctioned more harshly for IP than for non-IP homicides. Explanations for the divergence of these findings from those of earlier studies are discussed.

California's Incarcerated Drug Offender Population, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: Evaluating the War on Drugs and Proposition 36

Since 1980, the populations of state and federal prisons have more than quadrupled. This has in large part been attributed to increased law enforcement in the wake of the War on Drugs. Data-validated simulation modeling is used to examine the compositional dynamics of the drug offender population incarcerated in California prisons over the period 1980–1998, as well as to prospectively evaluate the impact of the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act of 2000 (the Act), which prohibits incarceration and mandates treatment for first-time nonviolent offenders convicted of simple drug possession. The analyses show that the drug offender population changed in significant ways from 1980 to 1998. The prospective analyses indicate that the Act will have some impacts on the composition of the incarcerated drug offender population that are consistent with the objective of selective incapacitation of dangerous offenders, but will not reduce the proportion of prison space overall devoted to housing drug offenders.

‘Social control of the self’ and pleading guilty in criminal court

In Donald Blacks 1994 work The Social Structure of Right and Wrong, he introduces the intriguing concept of the self-application of social control. According to Black, the ‘social control of the self’ follows the same principles of the behavior of law. Conceptualizing a guilty plea as a self-application of social control, this study of 717 homicide cases processed in an urban American court represents the first empirical test of this theory. Support for Blacks theoretical perspective was mixed, with only the predictions regarding the effects of social morphology on the self-application of social control finding support. Defendants who were less socially integrated than their victims were significantly more likely to plead guilty when compared to other case configurations. When relational distance between parties was low, the case was significantly less likely to be resolved with the self-application of social control in the form of a guilty plea. The importance of Blacks perspective for elucidating the theoretical linkages between social structure and individual behavior is considered.

Community justice and public safety: Assessing criminal justice policy through the lens of the social contract

A reconceptualization of the idea of “community justice” is framed in the logic of the social contract and emphasizes the responsibility of the justice system for the provision of public safety. First, we illustrate the ways in which the criminal justice system has hindered the efforts of community residents to participate in the production of public safety by disrupting informal social networks. Then we turn to an examination of the compositional dynamics of California prison populations over time to demonstrate that the American justice system has failed to meet their obligations to provide public safety by incapacitating dangerous offenders. We argue that these policy failures represent a breach of the social contract and advocate for more effective collaboration between communities and the formal criminal justice system so that all parties can fulfill their obligations under the contract.