The Cumulative Effects of Decisions Made by Police Officers and Prosecutors on Sentencing Outcomes in North Carolina

• In Event: Sentencing Outcomes: Cumulative Disadvantage and Punishment

Abstract

Increased attention has been placed on the issue of cumulative disadvantage in the criminal justice system, and there have been numerous calls for examinations of sentencing decisions that consider how earlier court processing decisions influence punishment outcomes, the extent to which outcome inequities are an artifact of accumulated disparity, and how individual disparities may be conditioned by other case and defendant characteristics. This paper explores how decisions made by police officers and prosecutors may affect sentencing outcomes among drug offenders in North Carolina.

Authors

• Sean Perry, University of Massachusetts Lowell

• Pauline K. Brennan, University of Massachusetts Lowell