Charge Reduction: An Intermediary Stage in the Process of Labelling Criminal Defendants.

Bernstein, Ilene Nagel; Kick, Edward; Leung, Jan T.; Schulz, Barbara

The article emphasizes the imperfect correspondence between alleged deviance and societal reactions. Moreover, it is asserted that values of reactors statuses of tire alleged deviant, and bureaucratic constraints of deviance processing organizations help explain some of that imperfection. Focusing on one intermediary deviance processing stage, i.e., plea bargaining, the degree to which the data are consonant with interactionist assumptions is explored. For a sample of 1,435 male and female criminal defendants, one find the favorability of the charge reduction outcome is partly explained by values of reactors, statuses of the defendant, and bureaucratic constraints of the court. The data is supportive of the general thrust of interactions Works. However, the relative size of each of these effects suggests that reformulation's of that perspective should attend to the finding that ascribed statuses play far less of a determinative role and organizational goals seem to play a more determinative role, suggesting that greater attention be paid to organizational variables.

CRIME prevention; CRIMINAL defense; SOCIAL problems; CRIMINAL procedure; ACTIONS & defenses (Law); ORGANIZATIONAL change; DEFENSE (Civil procedure)

Social Forces, 1977, Vol 56, Issue 2, p362

0037-7732

Academic Journal

10.2307/2577731