Examining Prosecutorial Discretion in Federal Criminal Cases

• In Event: Case Processing and Decision Points in the Federal System

Abstract

The federal criminal caseload has undergone rapid expansion and transformation in the last two decades. From 2000-2010, the federal criminal caseload increased roughly 50 percent with a large portion of this increase attributed to the rise in immigration prosecutions. These changes coupled with recent Supreme Court decisions rendering the guidelines advisory have renewed calls for research examining prosecutorial discretion, particularly with respect to the influence of legal and extralegal factors on charging and bargaining decisions. This paper presents findings from an NIJ funded project utilizing eight years of data (2002-2010) from the Federal Justice Statistics Program database housed within the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD). More specifically, the current research examines the nature of prosecutorial decisions to decline to charge federal arrestees, and to make any changes to the charge from the arresting offense. Results from the multilevel, multivariate models reveal that both extra-legal and legal factors were influential in the prosecutorial decision to decline to prosecute a case as well as in decisions about charge changes. Disaggregated models also revealed considerable variation in these two decisions across the various federal districts as well as across different offense types. Immigration offenses, for example were the least likely to be declined for prosecution and receive a charge change. Drug offenses were most likely to be declined while violent offenses were most likely to have a charge change. Finally, districts with higher caseloads had lower odds of a prosecutorial declination and charge change. These findings, however, varied across offense type.

Authors

• Richard Hartley, University of Texas San Antonio

• Rob Tillyer, University of Texas San Antonio