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The Influence of Income and Other Factors on Whether Criminal Defendants go to Prison

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Stevens H. Clarke  and
Gary G. Koch
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Abstract

The experiences of 798 burglary and larceny defendants in the criminal courts of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, in 1971 were studied to identify the factors having the greatest influence on the defendant's likelihood of emerging from court with an active prison sentence. The following variables were found to have a significant effect, listed in order of importance: (1) severity of offense (defined in terms of value of property taken and degree of skill required)—positive effect; (2) defendant's income—negative effect; (3) prior arrest record—positive effect; (4) strength of case against defendant as determined by promptness of arrest—positive effect. The influence of the defendant's sex could not be measured because there were too few females in the sample. Race, age, and employment were found to be of little or no importance. The four most important variables had a generally additive effect on prison probability.

Further analysis showed that the defendant's income affected not whether he was convicted of an offense, but the likelihood of going to prison after conviction. Most of this effect could be explained by the low-income defendant's poorer opportunity for pretrial release and greater likelihood of having a court-appointed rather than privately retained attorney. This suggests that the apparent disadvantage of the low-income defendant could be overcome by improvement of pretrial release and defense service.

The study's implications with regard to sentencing procedures are discussed. Judges' wide latitude in imposing sentence may enable the defendant's income to exert the large influence that it apparently does, but narrowing judicial discretion may not reduce the effect of income if present plea bargaining practices continue.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , Fall 1976 , pp. 57 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © 1977 The Law and Society Association

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Footnotes

*

The preparation of this document was partially supported by grant 73NI-040002 from the National Institute of law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, U.S. Department of Justice, and grant GM 7000404 from the National Institutes of Health, Institute of General Medical Sciences. The granting agencies do not necessarily concur in any conclusions or statements contained herein. We gratefully acknowledge the help of Jean L. Freeman and Nancy L. Snypes.

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