Charging, Plea, and Downgrade Decisions: Patterns and Predictors

Session Submission Type: Regular Session

Abstract/Description

Why do some arrests result in convictions while others are filtered out? Drawing evidence from Kansas, upstate New York, a Northwestern U.S. prosecutor’s office, and Aotearoa New Zealand, the four papers in this session analyze (1) statewide predictors of felony charge reductions and dismissals, (2) evidentiary and victim‑cooperation factors shaping gun‑case outcomes, (3) how a progressive‑prosecution approach affects case prioritization and racial disparities, and (4) plea negotiations and practices in New Zealand’s common‑law system. Together they expose common patterns in prosecutorial gatekeeping while highlighting the local contexts that drive divergent case trajectories.

Sub Unit

• Area VI. The Criminal Justice System / 44. Prosecutorial Discretion and Plea Bargaining

Individual Presentations

• An examination of felony charge reductions and dismissals in a Midwest state - John Grube, Kansas Sentencing Commission; Mario Cano, University of Texas at El Paso; Payton Fenwick, Kansas Sentencing Commission

• Factors associated with prosecutorial outcomes of gun crime cases - Hannah Cochran, John F. Finn Institute; Robert E. Worden, John F. Finn Institute & University at Albany

• (Progressively) prosecuting crime: Race and case prioritization - Li Huang, Seattle University; Rachel Bowman, Indiana University Bloomington

• What we do in the shadows: Plea bargaining in Aotearoa New Zealand - Antje Deckert, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand

Chair

• Li Huang, Seattle University