RT Article
T1 Race and the Construction of Evidence in Homicide Cases
JF American journal of criminal justice
VO 39
IS 4
SP 771
OP 786
A1 Pierce, Glenn L.
A2 Radelet, Michael L.
A2 Posick, Chad
A2 Lyman, Tim
LA English
YR 2014
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1764207203
AB Research that attempts to document racial or gender disparities in the criminal justice system inevitably paints a distorted picture if only one point in the criminal justice process is examined. For example, studies that look at who is sentenced to death among a group convicted of first-degree murder will miss exposure of biases that occur at earlier stages of the criminal justice process. In this paper, we looked at prosecutorial files on over 400 homicide cases from Caddo Parish, Louisiana (the Shreveport area). Results indicate that even after controlling for aggravating factors, cases with White female victims result in thicker files than other homicides, indicating more prosecutorial effort in attempting to secure convictions in such cases. This, in turn, was related to more severe sentencing of offenders convicted of killing whites and women. On the other hand, cases with black victims resulted in the thinnest case files and the least severe sentences.
K1 Investigative and prosecutorial effort
K1 racial bias
K1 Homicide investigations
K1 Discretion
K1 Capital Punishment
DO 10.1007/s12103-014-9259-1