(Dis)order in the Court: Examining Neighborhood Disorder Prosecutions in Miami-Dade County

• In Event: Advances in the Study of Guilty Pleas and Prosecution

Abstract

This study examines the link between perceptions of "disorder" and "disorder" crime prosecution in Miami-Dade County, Florida. A wealth of research has examined "disorder" policing, yet little attention has been devoted to "disorder" prosecutions. To help fill this gap in the literature, we analyze data on defendants arrested for "disorder" misdemeanor and ordinance violation offenses in Miami-Dade during a 4-year period (2012-2015) at the neighborhood level. Count models investigate the relationship between perceptions of "disorder" and prosecutorial outcomes in Miami-Dade neighborhoods, including pretrial detention, case acceptance, conviction, and sentencing. We find statistically significant racial-ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in the prosecution of "disorder" crimes. The clustering of "disorder" crime prosecutions in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods with large Black defendant populations reveals a more punitive orientation toward the treatment of these "marginalized" spaces. On the other hand, greater enforcement of "disorder" crimes in gentrifying White non-Hispanic neighborhoods suggests that "disorder" prosecutions are also used to impose "order" in more "desirable" spaces. These countervailing patterns highlight the spatial contingency of "disorder" crime enforcement, whereby local criminal justice actors differentially enforce low-level crimes in "desirable" and "marginalized" spaces as a tool for balancing competing concerns about urban "disorder" and "revitalization."

Authors

• Nick Petersen, University of Miami

• Marisa Omori, University of Miami

• Rachel Lautenschlager, University of Miami