Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-03T01:34:44.610Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Adjudication and Sentencing in A Misdemeanor Court: The Outcome is the Punishment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2024

John Paul Ryan
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A description and analysis of the Columbus (Ohio) Municipal Court is presented in the context of comparison with Malcolm Feeley's recent study of the New Haven lower court. The findings suggest that the Columbus court is much more severe in the sanctions imposed upon convicted defendants. These differences are attributed, in part, to contrasting local political cultures whose influence upon courts is mediated by police department orientations, police-prosecutor relationships, and methods of judicial assignment.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , 1981 , pp. 79 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 The Law and Society Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I wish to acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Jim Alfini in designing and conducting this research, the help of Jeff Huff and Tom Graham in collecting data from the Franklin County Municipal Court files, and the cooperation of Ron Horcher, the Assignment Commissioner of the Municipal Court. I also wish to thank Milt Heumann, Russ Wheeler, and the anonymous referees of the Review for their comments. This study was funded under Grant No. 78-NI-AX-0072 from the National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice (LEAA) to the American Judicature Society. Analyses and conclusions expressed are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the official positions of the U.S. Department of Justice or the American Judicature Society.

References

References

ALFINI, James J. and Rachel, DOAN (1977) “A New Perspective on Misdemeanor Justice,” 60 Judicature 425.Google Scholar
American Friends Service Committee (1971) Struggle for Justice: A Report on Crime and Punishment in America. New York: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
BARONE, Michael, Grant, UJIFUSA, and Douglas, MATTHEWS (1980) Almanac of American Politics. New York: E.P. Dutton.Google Scholar
CHURCH, Thomas W. Jr., CARLSON, Alan, LEE, Jo-Lynne, and Theresa, TAN (1978) Justice Delayed: The Pace of Litigation in Urban Trial Courts. Williamsburg, VA: National Center for State Courts.Google Scholar
DAHL, Robert (1961) Who Governs?: Democracy and Power in an American City. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
EISENSTEIN, James and Herbert, JACOB (1977) Felony Justice: An Organizational Analysis of Criminal Courts. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
FARRELL, Ronald A. and Victoria Lynn, SWIGERT (1978) “Prior Offense Record as a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy,” 12 Law & Society Review 437.Google Scholar
FEELEY, Malcolm M. (1979) The Process Is the Punishment: Handling Cases in a Lower Criminal Court. New York: Russell Sage.Google Scholar
GIBSON, James L. (1978) “Race as a Determinant of Criminal Sentences: A Methodological Critique and a Case Study” 12 Law & Society Review 455.Google Scholar
GOODMAN, Leo A. (1972) “A Modified Multiple Regression Approach to the Analysis of Dichotomous Variables,” 37 American Sociological Review 28.Google Scholar
HEUMANN, Milton (1977) Plea Bargaining: The Experiences of Prosecutors, Judges, and Defense Attorneys. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
KATZ, Lewis R. (1968) “Municipal Courts—Another Urban Ill,” 20 Case Western Reserve Law Review 87.Google Scholar
KRITZER, Herbert M. (1979) “Political Cultures, Trial Courts, and Criminal Cases,” in Nardulli, Peter F. (ed.), The Study of Criminal Courts: Political Perspectives. Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger.Google Scholar
LEVIN, Martin, (1977) Urban Politics and the Criminal Courts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
NARDULLI, Peter F. (1978) The Courtroom Elite: An Organizational Perspective on Criminal Justice. Cambridge Mass.: Ballinger.Google Scholar
NEUBAUER, David W. (1974) Criminal Justice in Middle America. Morristown, N.J.: General Learning Press.Google Scholar
Ohio Courts. (1978) Columbus: Supreme Court, Office of the Administrative Director.Google Scholar
PALMER, John W. (1975) “The Night Prosecutor,” 59 Judicature 22.Google Scholar
PARISI, Nicolette (1980) “Part-Time Imprisonment: The Legal and Practical Issues of Periodic Confinement,” 63 Judicature 385.Google Scholar
RHODES, William M. (1978) Plea Bargaining: Who Gains, Who Loses? Washington, D.C.: Institute for Law and Social Research.Google Scholar
ROSS, H. Laurence (1976) “The Neutralization of Severe Penalties: Some Traffic Law Studies,” 10 Law and Society Review 403.Google Scholar
RYAN, John Paul and James J., ALFINI (1979) ‘Trial Judges’ Participation in Plea Bargaining: An Empirical Perspective,“ 13 Law and Society Review 479.Google Scholar
RYAN, John Paul, ASHMAN, Allan, SALES, Bruce D., and SHANE-DuBOW, Sandra (1980) American Trial Judges: Their Work Styles and Performance. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
UHLMAN, Thomas M. and N. Darlene, WALKER (1979) “A Plea is No Bargain: The Impact of Case Disposition on Sentencing,” 60 Social Science Quarterly 218.Google Scholar
WILSON, James Q. (1968) Varieties of Police Behavior. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Cases Cited

Argersinger v. Hamlin, 407 U.S. 25, 1972.CrossRefGoogle Scholar