Plea Bargaining Policy and State District Court Caseloads
An Interrupted Time Series Analysis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4085384 |
|---|---|
| Authors | M D Holmes (0000-0002-0352-3371), Howard C Daudistel, William A Taggart |
| Year | 1992 |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 139-159 |
| Publication date | 1992-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Law & Society Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0023-9216 • E-ISSN: 1540-5893 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/3053839 |
| OpenAlex | W2316726195 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 30 |
Questions about the relation of court caseloads to plea bargaining practices generate much controversy but little sophisticated empirical research. Here we examine the effects of a 1975 felony plea bargaining ban in the Texas district courts in El Paso. Relying on a quasi-experimental interrupted time series model with annual data for 1968-83, we test the hypothesis that the discontinuance of plea bargaining negatively affects court caseloads, specifically the proportion of cases going to jury trial and the disposition rate. We also examine conviction rate, exploring whether the existence of plea bargaining encourages prosecutors to accept weak cases. We find a considerable increase in the proportion of cases going to jury trial immediately after the ban's implementation and a substantial but gradual decrease in the disposition rate. The jury trial rate contributed substantially to the disposition rate decline. The conviction rate was generally unaffected by the ban, although it became more consistent after the ban. Overall our findings suggest that the ban on explicit plea bargaining did affect the district courts' ability to move the felony docket efficiently
Economics · Interrupted time series · Interrupted Time Series Analysis · Plea · Political science · Series (stratigraphy · State (computer science · Statistics · Computer Science · Law · Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems · Legal and Constitutional Studies · Legal Education and Practice Innovations · Mathematics · Psychology
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Plea Bargaining and its History
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| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,16 |
| Citation span | 1995 - 2012 (18) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |