Reevaluating assumptions: Ethnographic insights into prosecutorial decision-making

• In Event: Contemporary Issues in Courts and Punishment

Abstract

Although studies on prosecutors are relatively scarce, some researchers have succeeded in analyzing court administrative data to identify correlates of prosecutors’ decisions. These quantitative studies typically make certain assumptions about the meaning of prosecutorial decisions, such as assuming that declining or dismissing a case reflect greater leniency. This paper draws on ethnographic data, which is uniquely positioned to reveal processes underlying prosecutorial decisions, in two District Attorney’s offices to investigate these assumptions. I find that the underlying processes leading to certain prosecutorial decisions, such as prosecutors deciding to decline or dismiss a case, do not always match the assumptions made by researchers. For example, a DA office’s low decline rate may not reflect greater punitiveness, but rather effective communication with investigating agencies. These findings challenge some of the assumptions embedded in existing research on prosecutorial decision-making.

Author

• Chiara Clio Packard, University of Utah