Large Jurisdictions Research Articles

Just Deserts, The Severity Of Punishment And Judicial Sentencing Decisions

Just deserts, as a philosophy of punishment, argues that criminal sanctions should be commensurate with the seriousness of the offense. This paper analyzes the severity of punishment meted out to felony offenders in a large urban jurisdiction in the Midwest and argues that two dimensions of criminal sanction need to be examined to understand punishment severity: the type of sanction received and the length of sentence. We also argue that the frequency and visibility of crime are linked to punishment severity. Analyses indicate that crime visibility is a good predictor both of judicial decisions to incarcerate and of the length of term of probation. Crime frequency, on the other hand, has little predictive power. We conclude that judges in the jurisdiction are guided by a modified just deserts philosophy in their sentencing decisions.

Economic Sanctions in Criminal Justice: Dilemma for Human Service?

The present study analyzes data from a large metropolitan adult probation jurisdiction to investigate the impact of various types of economic sanctions (e.g., supervision fees, restitution, fines) on revenue and clients’ compliance. Fee collections and delinquency rates reflected higher compliance among misdemeanor than felony probationers. Lower compliance among felony probationers was attributable to the imposition of multiple economic sanctions and the demographic characteristics of offenders. The findings on recovery rates indicated that the courts employed inadequate financial screening procedures. However, the analysis showed that judges were reluctant to revoke probation of delinquent probationers. The effects of economic sanctions on the role of probation officers are also discussed.

A decade of decline: a longitudinal look at big city and big county strategies to cope with declining revenues

Many local governments have now endured a decade of fiscal decline due to periodic reductions in external funding (federal and state and slowdowns in the rate of growth of the state and local government sector. This research examines the extent to which six large jurisdictions (three cities, three counties) under fiscal duress avoided political conflict and prevented further fragmentation of their authority between 1978 and 1987. The results showed that local officials generally chose retrenchment strategies (revenue, expenditure, and borrowing) with the least anticipated political opposition; but where hard choices had to be made (personnel reductions), they were made without hesitation. The timing of politically unpopular choices to coincide with downward trends in the private sector reduced the level of political fallout, even in heavily unionized, socioeconomically diverse communities. The results also showed that local officials strongly endorsed, rather than opposed, strategies that further fragment...

A Survival Time Analysis of Criminal Sanctions for Misdemeanor Offenders

Since misdemeanor offenders may significantly contribute to local jail overcrowding, it is incumbent upon criminal justice policy makers to explore alternatives to incarceration for society's less serious offenders. In order to address the feasibility of adopting a policy of alternative sanctions for general misdemeanor offenders, the investigators conducted a three year longitudinal study of minor offenders sentenced to fine, probation, and jail in a large southwest urban jurisdiction (Houston, Texas). The most salient finding was the emergence of probation as a superior sanction. Utilizing traditional chi-square analysis, probation exhibited the lowest recidivism rate. Employing recently developed survival time analysis, probationers had a significantly higher probability of not recidivating than jailed offenders during the study period. The authors conclude by discussing the policy implications of these findings.

The Call to Rome and Other Obstacles to State-Level Innovation

Among the important virtues attributed to the American federal system is its stimulus for policy innovation. The states on their own initiative can institute programs that may later become the model for national action. In this sense, America has 50 separately-directed laboratories in which to experiment with the design of public policies. A new approach to a common problem can be tested in one or several states before being considered for adoption nationally. Because the states manage many federal programs, they can apply independent judgment and a knowledge of local circumstances to improve them. Federalism's decentralized administration encourages the conceptualization and presentation of new ideas.' As Nelson Rockefeller once expressed it, the states can offer special scope to creativity, imagination, and innovation in meeting the needs. . of a large and complex society.2 To succeed, innovations must progress from presentation to first adoption to diffusion, and each stage has unique problems.3 Skill is needed to move ideas along this precarious path. A governor or commissioner, anxious to create an innovative administration, may bring into state government a team of able assistants to design new programs. However, the presentation of new ideas often brings the designers widespread attention and career opportunities such as the chance to serve in a larger jurisdiction - the Call to Rome perhaps. The reward for creativity draws talent away from state government at the point when the ideas are being implemented and refined. The understandable urge to

Voting power in municipal annexation elections

In many American states, municipal annexation and consolidation require concurrent majority votes of all affected jurisdictions. The effectiveness and fairness of this voting procedure have been criticized on the grounds that a small minority of voters can frustrate the preferences of the overall majority. This paper investigates the extent to which the relative ability of voters in large and small jurisdictions to influence voting outcomes in procedures requiring concurrent majorities is influenced by jurisdictional size. The Banzhaf index, which counts the number of case4s in which a given voter could reverse the overall group decision by changing positions on an issue, is applied to this problem of concurrent voting majorities. Mathematical analysis indicates that the ratio of power between voters in small and large jurisdictions approximately equals the inverse of the square root of the ratio of their population size.

Public bureau budgets and jurisdiction size: An empirical note

This note suggests that the persuit of budget maximization by public bureaus is partially dependent on the size of the jurisdiction in which the bureau is located. The larger is the jurisdiction, the greater is the degree of rational ignorance and the more significant are moving costs, each of which contribute to bureau monopoly power. The additional monopoly power in larger jurisdictions provides the incentive for, and enables, the bureau personnel to exert greater pressure on politicians to expand bureau budgets and benefits to personnel. Our examination of police services showed these hypotheses to be consistent with the evidence. In particular, the size of budgets grew far more rapidly than did population, and the proportion of public employees proved to be a significant variable where personnel expenditures were considered.

Local government police management : 2nd edition, edited by Bernard L. Garmire. International City Management Association (1140 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036), 1982, 447 pp., hardcover—$36.00 plus processing charge, $2.25.

While various perspectives have been offered to explain why females might be treated more leniently by the court system than males, very few studies have investigated sex-based disparities at stages of case processing prior to sentencing. Therefore, we examine outcomes at pretrial release and sentencing and investigate for cumulative disadvantage across the criminal court system.A sample of felony cases referred to the Prosecutor’s Office of a large northern urban jurisdiction in the United States during calendar year 2009 were analyzed and included violent, property, and drug offenses.In general, it was found that females were treated more leniently by the court system, although specific groups of female defendants were found to experience cumulative disadvantage across the criminal court system.While support for the chivalry/paternalism perspective was found, it is suggested that scholars revisit the many perspectives currently put forth to explain sex-based disparities.

Introduction to the criminal justice system: Principles, procedures, practice : by Gerald D. Robin. Harper & Row Publishers (10 East 53rd Street, New York, New York 10022), 1980, 558 pp., hardcover—$15.95

While various perspectives have been offered to explain why females might be treated more leniently by the court system than males, very few studies have investigated sex-based disparities at stages of case processing prior to sentencing. Therefore, we examine outcomes at pretrial release and sentencing and investigate for cumulative disadvantage across the criminal court system.A sample of felony cases referred to the Prosecutor’s Office of a large northern urban jurisdiction in the United States during calendar year 2009 were analyzed and included violent, property, and drug offenses.In general, it was found that females were treated more leniently by the court system, although specific groups of female defendants were found to experience cumulative disadvantage across the criminal court system.While support for the chivalry/paternalism perspective was found, it is suggested that scholars revisit the many perspectives currently put forth to explain sex-based disparities.

Bail decision making and pretrial detention: Surfacing judicial policy.

Bail practices became the target of reform efforts during the 1960's and 1970's not only because of issues concerning economic bias against indigent defendants but also because of criticism of the bail decision itself. Questions were raised about the appropriate uses of bail (e.g., to prevent flight or pretrial crime, or to inflict pretrial punishment), the rationality of the criteria relied on by judges in deciding bail, and the discretionary allocation of pretrial detention through high cash bail. In this article, case law and statutes governing bail practices in the United States are reviewed first to characterize the ambiguous legal framework from within which bail judges must operate. Then bail decisions in a large urban jurisdiction are analyzed as a case study to discover the factors most influential in determining pretrial release options. It is inferred that, even after years of reform, community-ties measures do not play a major role in the bail decision or the determination of pretrial custody; rather, the nature of the charged offense appears most influential. A finding of special significance is that a large proportion of these decisions could not be explained systematically (i.e., a large share of variance remained unexplained). The article concludes by suggesting a guidelines approach to bail that could narrow disparity in bail options and the use of detention, enhance the rationality of the decision process and contribute to more equitable pretrial practices.

Jurisdictional consequences of optimizing public goods

The jointness efficiency of large jurisdictions and the distributional efficiency of small jurisdictions present a dilemma in the organization of a governmental system. Working from the point of view that governments exist to provide services, the two types of efficiency are integrated through Lagrangian methodology. The result is an optimal provision of public goods, an equitable taxing structure, and an efficient distribution system.

The Consolidation of Urban Public Services: A Focus on the Police

A rguments dealing with the issue of the consolidation of urban governmental services and/or governmental units in metropolitan areas are familiar to most practitioners and academics concerned with the study of urban politics and administration. Most introductory texts on urban affairs, for example, characteristically devote a section of readings describing and evaluating the fragmented metropolis.' Moreover, unlike many issues of interest to political science and public administration, the question of governmental consolidation extends beyond academia. The consolidation of urban governments has been the subject of popular press coverage, numerous voter referenda, and has been the focus of attention of a variety of local, state, and federal governmental and nongovernmental commissions.2 While the debate on municipal consolidation has generally been couched in terms of multi-purpose governmental consolidations (e.g., city and county mergers, Unigov and Metro consolidation, etc.), an essential dimension of the arguments supportive of areawide metropolitan government has been the thought that the consolidation of particular urban governmental services, such as public safety departments, would lead to a more effective and equitable system for the provision of public services. The purpose of this article will be to review a rapidly growing body of literature which is highly critical of municipal consolidation, and, in particular, as consolidation relates to the provision of police services.3 In addition to reviewing this literature, this article will also attempt to do an empirical evaluation of some of the major positions relating specifically to the police. * A set of literature in public administration has recently emerged, associated with the Public Choice perspective, which argues against metropolitan consolidation-and police consolidation specifically. This article reviews the major assertions which the anticonsolidationists make in specific reference to the consolidation of urban police departments: (1) that larger police departments are not more efficient or economical; and (2) that citizen satisfaction with urban police services varies inversely with the size of the municipality. On the first assertion the authors find that evidence is still inconclusive regarding the economy and efficiency of larger police departments. To evaluate the second assertion Campbell and Schuman's study of citizen attitudes in 15 American cities was reanalyzed. The results indicate that, contrary to the anti-consolidationist viewpoint, citizen satisfaction with police services is more a reflection of the differentiated socioeconomic characteristics of central cities and suburban cities than a function of city size. Evidence further suggests that if all things were equal, larger jurisdictions would produce more satisfying police services.

Conflicting problems in the political organization of space

The political organization of space responds to several potentially conflicting problems. These logically divide between functional problems, which deal with the spatial requirements of a specific service, and system problems, which deal with the spatial requirements of the area and clientele being served. The functional arguments call for thresholds so that jurisdictions are large enough, and accessibility to assure that they are small enough. The systems arguments are also split. Externalities problems require larger jurisdictions, public choice problems require small ones. The solutions to the simultaneous problems may be in conflict, so trade-offs may have to be made. Adapting services to an area, one may assess jointness and distributional efficiency in an effort to derive a solution.

The Prospects for Administrative Decentralization in Our Cities

Mudd has produced more than a simple case study of New York. Most of the themes he develops could-with no difficulty-be applied to the state or federal planes when such jurisdictions attempt to achieve any measure of decentralization within their respective administrative hierarchies. For example, the vertical functional autarchies-to use a descriptive phrase we have heard frequently over the past decade-emerge in the paper as the chief obstacle to decentralization. This problem, of course, is a familiar one. The federal people face it. So do the states, and increasingly the same dilemma is being encountered by certain urban counties. Its treatment in the New York City context suggests lessons for many large jurisdictions.

Inter-Party Competition and Primary Contesting: The Case of Indiana

The significance of inter-party competition for variations in electoral behavior has recently been recognized in a number of political studies. The objects of this article are, first, to refine the concepts of safe and competitive electoral districts, and second, to replicate some propositions relating inter-party competition to the number of contestants in primary elections in Indiana.Most preceding studies of inter-party competition have examined behavior in large electoral jurisdictions, rarely one smaller than a congressional district and often an entire state. Generally they have examined behavior relating to a single office, usually the governor's or a congressman's, and have assigned every electoral-situation to either a “safe” or an “unsafe” category. They have varied in the tests applied to differentiate the latter. Most tests have determined safeness on the basis of one election; they have differed in the selection of that election and in the size of the majority thought to indicate safety.