Chapter Topics Crime Policing Arrests The Defendant Prosecution Grand Juries Exclusionary Rules Case Attrition The Criminal Justice Wedding Cake

Crime Crimes known to the police increased for twenty years, declined in the 1990s and have stabilized the last few years Data comes from the FBI Uniform Crime Reports Type I offenses (homicide, rape, arson, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, auto theft, larceny over $50) Type II offenses (theft, simple assault, public drunkenness, disorderly conduct, etc.)

Crime 1 in 4 crimes is Type I Fighting crime is a regular campaign slogan, but is a difficult social problem. Despite money and effort crime remains persistent. U.S. has the highest crime rate of any Western industrial nation A large number of American are fearful of crime, however studies show that is not necessarily related to actual risk

Policing Policing is decentralized (800,000 officers in nearly 18,000 agencies) Historically connected to party politics Today regulated by civil service Modern policing is heavily influenced by problem solving approaches (e.g., community policing)

Arrests Of crimes brought to the attention of the police, only 20% result in arrest (clearance rate) varies by type of crime, 46% of violent crimes result in arrest, but only 16% of property offenses 13.6 million people arrested drug and property crime arrests are nearly triple the arrests for violent crime

The Defendant Most defendants are charged with nonviolent offenses Career criminals make up a disproportionate share of the arrests Felony defendants are: younger, male, disproportionately members of minority groups, come from broken homes, less educated, unemployed, single

Initial Appearance The police must bring an arrested person before a judge without unnecessary delaytypically 48 hours An initial appearance is a defendants first encounter with the courts and judicial process judge advises defendant of rights typically last a few minutes for minor crimes, defendants may plead guilty and receive immediate sentence

Initial Appearance For major crimes, the judge will set bail, schedule next court appearance and appoint a counsel if the defendant is an indigent Bail Bail is a guarantee that in return for being released from jail, the accused will return to court as needed

Bail procedures vary depending on seriousness of crime for minor offenses bail may be posted at the police station (which often has a fixed bail schedule) for felony or serious misdemeanors the court must set a bond amount Once amount is set there are four ways to post a bond

Bail Bond procedure include: provide cash bond provide property bond (equity of twice the face amount of bond) bail bondsman – which posts the bond for the defendant and charges a nonrefundable fee (often 10% of face value of bond) personal recognizance – judge may release defendant from jail without monetary bail

Bail The poor often wait in jail, while the rich are able to post bond studies show that defendants held in jail without bon are more likely to be convicted, and more likely to be sentenced to prison In serious cases there is a lot of discretion in setting the bail amount a few defendants are held over without bail

Bail Over 700,000 people are held in jail (v. prison) Debate is the goal of bail to: 1) ensure the appearance of the defendant, or 2) to protect the public preventive detention emphasizes the public protection aspect and allows judges to hold over those accused of dangerous crimes without bail

Prosecution Prosecution is found at all major governmental levels: national, state, county and local may be called U.S. Attorneys, state attorneys general, prosecutor, district attorney, states attorney, city attorney Prosecutors have broad discretion – prosecutors decide which cases to pursue

Filing Charges The sixth amendment requires the defendant to be given information about the charges against them a charging document includes the name of the person charged, brief description of how and where the offense was committed and the statute allegedly violated

Filing Charges Three major types of charging documents: complaint – is supported by oath or affirmation of an arresting officer, used in misdemeanor or city ordinance violations information – identical to complaint but signed by prosecutor indictment – issued by a grand jury (citizens)

Filing Charges There is considerable discretion in the prosecutors decision to follow an arrest with a charge. the prosecutor controls the doors to the courthouse very little oversightother than prosecutors are typically elected officials some police consider every decision not to charge as a repudiation of their policing

Preliminary Hearing A preliminary hearing is the first time a criminal case is reviewed by someone other than a law enforcement official an arrested person is entitled to a timely hearing before a neutral judge to determine probable cause for the detention protects the innocent and provides the defendant with an overview of the case against him does not require the establishment of guiltonly probable cause

Grand Juries Grand juries are different from trial juriesthey determine probable cause Two primary functions: determine whether there is probable cause the defendant committed the crime protect the public from overzealous prosecutors issue a true bill if the case continues grand jury use varies but is used mostly for felonies and capital crimes

Grand Juries size of the grand jury varies 6 – 23 normally selected in a manner similar to trial juries impaneled for a set time and meet periodically legal protections of criminal court do not applythe work is done in secret, plurality vote, no right to an attorney prosecutors dominate process

Exclusionary Rules many factors affect how the police arrest and prosecutors charge those accused of committing crimes The Bill of Rights and Supreme Court decisions Exclusionary Rule – prohibits the prosecutor from using illegally obtained evidence during a trial

Exclusionary Rules There are three distinct exclusionary rules: identification of suspects – defendants have the right to be assisted by counsel during a police lineup confessions – no physical or psychological coercion, Miranda rights inform a suspect of their legal guarantees searches – the gathering of physical evidence must follow certain rules and be truthful and relevant

Exclusionary Rules Lawyers ask for evidence to be excluded through pretrial motions pretrial motions are a request to suppress evidence that was illegally obtained empirical studies show that despite great public concern over the exclusionary rule relatively few pretrial motions to suppress evidence are actually filed

Exclusionary Rules Debate centers on whether convictions lost, and the guilty let go because of the suppressed evidence. it is difficult to resolve this debate because it hard to determine precisely why cases are dropped we do know that far more cases are dropped because of a lack of evidence or witness problems than are dropped because the prosecutor cannot use illegally obtained evidence.

Case Attrition The exercise of discretion (by police, prosecutors, judges, etc.) causes many cases to be dropped out of 100 felony arrests only 55 survive to trial stage once a case reaches felony court is highly likely to end in a guilty plea or trial verdict of guilty there are variations across courts in case attrition rates

Why Attrition Occurs Legal Judgments – at every stage a decision is made about whether there is sufficient legal evidence to move a case forward Policy Priorities – prosecutors are simply not interested in pursuing some cases (where the punishment may have already occurred), yet very aggressive in pursuing others Substantive Assessments – some cases are dropped because the officials decide prosecution would serve no useful purpose

Criminal Justice Wedding Cake Not all cases should be treated or counted the same way Samuel Walker suggests using a wedding cake as a metaphorwith each layer representing a different type of case but with consistency in each layer Walker observes that criminal justice officials handle the various layers of the cake very differently

Celebrated Cases at the top of the wedding cake dominate the news headlines, but are atypical of most cases the judicial process is carefully followed these cases are likely to go to a full jury trial have considerable impact on the public perception (too much?)

Serious and Lesser Felonies The second and third layers of the cake are felony cases Differentiation between the two levels is based on: 1) the seriousness of the crime, 2) the criminal record of the suspect, 3) relationship between the victim and the offender serious felonies are carefully handled and lesser felonies are dispensed of routinely and quickly

Misdemeanors misdemeanors far outnumber all other types of cases half of the misdemeanor cases represent public order offenses, fewer than a third represent crimes against persons or property processed very differently from felonies: routine handling, defendants are arraigned en masse, guilt is rarely contested, punishment is not severe

Conclusion Americas courts process millions of criminal cases every yearmost are routine Crime rates continue to be high profile and a frequent subject of political campaigns Crime is persistent (if dropping) despite considerable effort and expenditures Discretion occurs at every stage of the criminal justice process