Impact of Pre-Adjudication Risk Assessment on Court Outcomes and Racial/Ethnic Disparity

• In Event: Pretrial Risk Assessments and Bail Disparities in Criminal Court

Abstract

Concern over mass incarceration has opened debate and discussion on mechanisms that can scale back incarceration while balancing public safety. In order to stabilize or reduce incarceration a number of States have embarked on “Justice Reinvestment Initiatives” (JRI). The use of risk assessment instruments has received increasing attention as a potential tool for JRI’s to reduce incarceration without harming public safety. However, the use of risk assessment in the pre-adjudication or sentencing phase of the court process brings with it controversy regarding social justice costs, particularly disparate racial/ethnic sentencing outcomes (Skeem & Lowenkamp, 2016). This paper examines the impact of utilizing a pre-adjudication risk assessment (PAA) on court sentencing outcomes overtime in a JRI setting. The experiences of two counties in Oregon that have been utilizing different PAA tools and at different decision-points in the court process since 2014 are compared. Propensity score matching is used to find samples of like cases both pre and post implementation of the PAA that only differ in terms of defendant’s race. The key research question explored is which PAA tool and process is the most promising for reducing incarceration without exasperating racial and ethnic disparities.

Authors

• Brian Renauer, Portland State University

• Mark G Harmon, Portland State University

• Christopher Michael Campbell, Portland State University