Is Punishment in the Processing in Misdemeanor Court Cases? A State-Wide Analysis

• In Event: Using the Virginia Pretrial Data Project to Address Theoretical, Empirical & Policy Related Issues

Abstract

The rise to mass expanding has led to considerable attention, both theoretically and empirically, on the expansion of the criminal justice system and its means control. Importantly, this growing literature points to the ways in which supervision and control by the criminal justice system occurs outside conventional or “popular” practices of conviction and incarceration. Within this literature is the much smaller interest on the processing of misdemeanors in the lower criminal courts, which as Feeley (1979) noted, are a portion of the judicial system that is largely invisible and has yet “vast power of discretion”. Furthermore, because so many cases do not appear to result in standard outcomes, it seems that the “punishment is in the process”. Subsequently, in this paper, a unique data set prepared by the Virgnia Criminal Sentencing Commission is used to examine the processing of misdemeanor cases that can result in a period of incarceration across the state but rarely does. The analysis examines characteristics of those individuals and cases that get processed, with special attention to process characteristics and how they vary across cities and counties of Virginia.

Authors

• Ruth A. Triplett, Old Dominion University

• Narissa A. Haakmat, Old Dominion University