The Prosecutor’s Power to Punish: What Difference Do Guidelines Make?

• In Event: Understanding Guilty Pleas: New and Innovative Research on Guilty Pleas in State Courts

Abstract

Previous research in state and federal courts has demonstrated that decision-making by prosecutors can affect, substantially, the severity of punishment ordered for offenders alleged to have committed similar crimes. The severity of charges filed and the decision to reduce, or not reduce, charge severity for defendants who plead guilty may also contribute to unwarranted racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in sentencing, and may produce substantially different sentencing outcomes by jurisdiction. The present study examines the factors that predict these prosecutorial decisions and their effects on sentence severity, and sentence disparity, in a state with presumptive sentencing guidelines.

Author

• Rodney L. Engen, University of Arkansas