caa a22 4500 463170857 CHVBK 20180406164812.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170326e20070601xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10940-006-9023-x doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10940-006-9023-x Measuring and Explaining Charge Bargaining [Elektronische Daten] [Anne Piehl, Shawn Bushway] Charge bargaining is a potentially important form of discretion in criminal sentencing that is obscured in many studies of sentencing outcomes. Our procedure to measure the difference in sentencing outcomes caused by plea bargain emphasizes the amount, in months, that the sentence length is reduced. Using this measure, we compare prosecutorial discretion across counties in two different states. We conclude that charge bargaining plays an empirically important role in determining sentencing outcomes. Furthermore, we find that measuring the distance (in months of prison time) moved during a charge bargain may provide a very different estimate of the discretion than is given by the rate of bargaining, which is the usual measure used. Although the rate of charge bargaining was higher in the voluntary guidelines state, its impact on sentences was greater in the presumptive guidelines jurisdiction, as predicted by Reitz (1998). We further observe a dramatic difference in predictions from shifting the case characteristics underlying the summary measure. This result reveals that distributional differences (either due to the underlying criminal activity or due to the overall level of severity of punishment) can easily obscure the inferences necessary for understanding the operation of the systems. Our finding of differential charge bargaining in these two jurisdictions should provide a caution when comparing the results of studies of disparity in sentencing across jurisdiction types. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 2007 Sentencing nationallicence Charge bargaining nationallicence Plea bargaining nationallicence Sentencing disparity nationallicence Piehl Anne Department of Economics, Rutgers University, 75 Hamilton Street, 08901-1248, New Brunswick, NJ, USA aut Bushway Shawn School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, SUNY, 135 Western Ave., 12222, Albany, NY, USA aut Journal of Quantitative Criminology Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers; http://www.springer-ny.com 23/2(2007-06-01), 105-125 0748-4518 23:2<105 2007 23 10940 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-006-9023-x text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-006-9023-x text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Piehl Anne Department of Economics, Rutgers University, 75 Hamilton Street, 08901-1248, New Brunswick, NJ, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Bushway Shawn School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, SUNY, 135 Western Ave., 12222, Albany, NY, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Journal of Quantitative Criminology Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers; http://www.springer-ny.com 23/2(2007-06-01), 105-125 0748-4518 23:2<105 2007 23 10940 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer