Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-k7p5g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-09T18:23:50.788Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Judicial Sentencing Decisions in Taiwanese Economic Crimes: Consequences of Swift Justice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Hsiao-Ming Wang  and
Leanne Fiftal Alarid
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examines the effect of case-processing time on judicial sentencing decisions of economic crime in Taiwan. Studies have been conducted with cases involving misdemeanors and felony homicide, but not with serious economic offenses committed in countries outside of North America. As economic crime becomes increasingly an international problem, research from other countries will be more important. The hypotheses considered were as follows: as the time between the decision to prosecute and the judicial sentencing outcome decreases, both the likelihood of being sent to prison and the likelihood of receiving a longer prison sentence increases. Our findings indicated that case-processing time is not only an indicator of offense severity but also a factor in judicial sentencing decisions.

Type
Papers of General Interest
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , 2001 , pp. 607 - 632
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 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

A similar version of this paper was presented at the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Annual Meeting; Orlando, Florida, March 12–15, 1999.

References

References

Aland, Leanne F., & Wang, Hsiao-Ming (2000) “Cultural Influence on Taiwanese Police Management and Control Practice: An Exploratory Investigation of Ouchi's Theory Z,” International J. of the Sociology of Law 28 (2):113–27.Google Scholar
Albonetti, Celesta A. (1994) “The Symbolic Punishment of White-Collar Offenders,” in Bridges, G. S. & Myers, M. A., eds., Inequality, Crime, and Social Control. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Bachman, Ronet, & Paternoster, Raymond (1997) Statistical Methods for Criminology and Criminal Justice. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Benson, Michael L., & Walker, Esteban (1988) “Sentencing the White-Collar Offender,” 53 American Sociological Rev. 294–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brantingham, Patricia L. (1985) “Sentencing Disparity: An Analysis of Judicial Consistency,” 1 J. of Quantitative Criminology 281–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bureau of Justice Statistics (1993) World Factbook of Criminal Justice Systems. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.Google Scholar
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) (2000) The World Factbook. http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/tw.html Accessed on 09/01/00.Google Scholar
Chiricos, Theodore, & Waldo, Gordon (1975) “Socioeconomic Status and Criminal Sentencing: An Empirical Assessment of a Conflict Proposition,” 40 American Sociological Rev. 753–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Church, Thomas W. Jr. (1981) “Who Sets the Pace of Litigation in Urban Trial Courts?” 65 (2) Judicature 76–85.Google Scholar
Denq, Furjen, Vaughn, Michael S., & Huang, Frank (1994) “Correlates of Crime in Taiwan: A Time-Series Analysis from 1964 to 1990,” 21 Crime, Law & Social Change 267–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'lessio, Stewart J., & Stolzenberg, Lisa (1993) “Socioeconomic Status and the Sentencing of the Traditional Offender,” 21 J. of Criminal Justice 61–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dixon, Jo (1995) “The Organizational Context of Criminal Sentencing,” 100 American J. of Sociology 1157–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doyel, Robert L. (1982) “The Federal Speedy Trial Act: Stampede into Ambush,” 16 John Marshall Law Rev. 27–48.Google Scholar
Farrell, Ronald A. (1971) “Class Linkages of Legal Treatment of Homosexuals,” 9 Criminology 49–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feeley, Malcolm M. (1979) The Process Is the Punishment. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Feld, Barry C. (1991) “Justice by Geography: Urban, Suburban, and Rural Variations in Juvenile Justice Administration,” 82 J. of Criminal Law & Criminology 156–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hagan, Frank E. (1993) Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Hagan, John (1974) “Extra-Legal Attributes and Criminal Sentencing: An Assessment of a Sociological Viewpoint,” 8 Law & Society Rev. 357–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hagan, John, Nagel, Ilene H., & Albonetti, Celesta (1980) “The Differential Sentencing of White-Collar Offenders in Ten Federal District Courts,” 45 American Sociological Rev. 802–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hair, Joseph F., Anderson, Rolph E., Tatham, Ronald L., & Black, William C. (1995) Multivariate Data Analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Johnson, Elmer H. (1957) “Selective Factors in Capital Punishment,” 36 Social Forces 165–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, James C., Lo, Anthony M., Lan, Frank H., & Lin, Fullsoon (1991) Major Laws of the Republic of China on Taiwan (Chinese and English bilingual edition). Tainan, Taiwan: Magnificent Publishing.Google Scholar
Luskin, Mary Lee, & Luskin, Robert C. (1986) “Why So Fast, Why So Slow? Explaining Case Processing Time,” 77 J. of Criminal Law & Criminology 190–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Fred (1991) Rural Courts Are Fertile Ground for Caseflow Management: The Case Processing and Delay Reduction in Rural Courts Project. San Francisco: Western Regional Office, National Center for State Courts.Google Scholar
Myers, Laura B., & Reid, Susan T. (1995) “The Importance of County Context in the Measurement of Sentence Disparity: The Search for Routinization,” 23 J. of Criminal Justice 223–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myers, Martha A., & Talarico, Susette M. (1986) “Urban Justice, Rural Injustice? Urbanization and Its Effect on Sentencing,” 24 Criminology 367–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagel, Ilene H., & Hagan, John L. (1982) “The Sentencing of White-Collar Criminals in Federal Courts: A Socio-Legal Exploration of Disparity,” 80 Michigan Law Rev. 1427–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neubauer, David W., & Ryan, John Paul (1982) “Criminal Courts and the Delivery of Speedy Justice: The Influence of Case and Defendant Characteristics,” 7 Justice Systems J. 213–35.Google Scholar
Reichel, Philip L. (1999) Comparative Criminal Justice Systems: A Topical Approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
ROC, Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Justice (1993) Prevention and Investigation of Economic Crime Yearbook, 1992. Taipei: Fair World Printing.Google Scholar
ROC, Ministry of Justice (1997) A Brief Introduction to the Ministry of Justice. Taipei: Jih-Chung Printing.Google Scholar
Sanders, Joseph (1996) “Courts and Law in Japan,” in Jacob, Herbert, ed., Courts, Law, Politics in Comparative Perspective. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Susan P. (1985) “The Road Not Taken: The Elusive Path to Criminal Prosecution for White-Collar Offenders,” 19 Law & Society Rev. 179–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swigert, Victoria Lynn, & Farrell, Ronald A. (1980) “Speedy Trial and the Legal Process,” 4 Law & Human Behavior 135–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tao, Bai-Chuan, Wang, Ze-Jian, Lieu, Chung-Rong, & Gor, Ke-Chang (1997) An Omnibus of Modern Chinese Laws (Chinese edition). Taipei: Three-People Books.Google Scholar
Ulmer, Jeffery T., & Kramer, John H. (1996) “Court Communities Under Sentencing Guidelines: Dilemmas of Formal Rationality and Sentencing Disparity,” 34 Criminology 383–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, Samuel (2000) Sense and Nonsense About Crime and Drugs: A Policy Guide. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.Google Scholar
Wheeler, Stanton, Weisburd, David, & Bode, Nancy (1982) “Sentencing the White-Collar Offender: Rhetoric and Reality,” 47 American Sociological Rev. 641–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wheeler, Stanton, Mann, Kenneth, & Sarat, Austin (1988) Sitting in Judgment: The Sentencing of White-Collar Criminals. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Zatz, Marjorie S. (1987) The Changing Forms of Racial/Ethnic Biases in Sentencing,“ 24 J. of Research in Crime & Delinquency 69–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Statute Cited

U.S. Speedy Trial Act of 1979, 18 U.S.C. 3161 (1979).CrossRefGoogle Scholar