Uncharted Territory: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Inter-district Variation in the Federal Criminal Justice System

未知领域：联邦刑事司法系统地区间差异的定性和定量分析

• 批准号: 0111774
• 负责人: James Eisenstein
• 金额: $ 24万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-09-15 至 2004-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0111774&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Uncharted; Territory; Qualitative; Quantitative; Analysis

This research will advance theoretical understanding of criminal courts by applying the concepts of court community and decision makers' focal concerns to the Federal Criminal Justice System (FCJS). Its central working hypothesis is that differences in federal criminal court communities help account for inter-district differences in case disposition procedures and outcomes. With few exceptions, existing quantitative empirical research on the FCJS has focused only on the sentencing stage. It usually ignores inter-district variation in disposition procedures and outcomes. As the first empirical, theoretically oriented study of the FCJS, this study will achieve a second purpose: It will significantly expand our knowledge of the FCJS by looking at decision stages prior to sentencing and assessing the nature and causes of inter-district differences. This research employs analysis of quantitative data and interviews with FCJS officials. Phase I includes pretest interviews with key decision makers in a large federal court community and with key staff in the Department of Justice and quantitative examination of differences in outcomes and disposition modes by district. Phase II will involve interviews in six districts selected for variation by size of court and by case disposition techniques and in Washington, DC. Interviews will be conducted in two stages: The first will explore decision-making patterns informed by knowledge gained from the phase I quantitative analysis; in the second, re-interviews in these districts will focus on questions and hypotheses generated by analysis of the first stage.

这项研究将通过将法院共同体和决策者关注的焦点的概念应用于联邦刑事司法系统(FCJS)来推进对刑事法院的理论理解。其核心工作假设是，联邦刑事法院社区的差异有助于解释地区间案件处理程序和结果的差异。除了少数例外，现有的关于FCJS的定量实证研究只集中在量刑阶段。它通常忽略处理程序和结果的地区间差异。作为对FCJS的第一个经验性的、面向理论的研究，这项研究将达到第二个目的：它将通过考察判刑前的决定阶段和评估地区间差异的性质和原因，显著扩大我们对FCJS的认识。这项研究采用了定量数据分析和对FCJS官员的访谈。第一阶段包括对大型联邦法院社区的主要决策者和司法部的主要工作人员进行预试访谈，并按地区定量检查结果和处置模式的差异。第二阶段将包括在华盛顿特区根据法庭规模和案件处理技术的不同而选择的六个地区的面谈。访谈将分两个阶段进行：第一阶段将探索从第一阶段定量分析中获得的知识所提供的决策模式；第二阶段，这些地区的重新访谈将侧重于第一阶段分析产生的问题和假设。