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Case Adjudication as Local Practice: A Follow-up Study using Multiple Methods

案例裁判作为地方实践：多种方法的追踪研究

基本信息

批准号：
1849089
负责人：
Mona Lynch
金额：
$ 13.34万
依托单位：
University of California-Irvine
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2019
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2019-02-01 至 2021-01-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1849089&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Case Adjudication Local Practice Follow

项目摘要

Criminal courts that operate under the same formal law and policy often develop their own norms and practices, resulting in very different kinds of justice outcomes depending upon where a case is adjudicated. And when formal legal policies change, the reforms generally get implemented in distinct and divergent ways by local court actors, sometimes in ways inconsistent with policy goals. This project capitalizes upon recent major policy changes imposed in the federal criminal system by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to examine how different court "communities" have responded to the changes. Specifically, new policies have been developed urging prosecutors to focus on certain kinds of federal crimes, and that require prosecutors across the country to maximize the potential punishment. While the DOJ policies aim for standardized prosecutorial practices across the diverse federal district courts, prior research suggests that local courts will vary in how they translate these directives into action. The study builds directly upon the PI's previous NSF-funded research that examined jurisdictional differences in adjudication strategies in federal court, using both qualitative field methods and quantitative methods. The project revisits the same research sites (4 geographically and demographically diverse federal districts) to assess whether and how the current DOJ policy impacts caseload characteristics (including defendant demography) and adjudication practices and outcomes, with a focus on how formal top-down policy is translated into localized, on-the-ground legal action. Using interviews, observations, and administrative data from the federal courts, the project tests three related hypotheses: 1) Despite the return to policies that aim to control local practices through top-down mandates, adaptations will be localized in practice. Between-district variations will continue to be evident in four distinct sets of practices: case selection; prosecutorial charging practices; terms and modes of plea agreements; and formal sentencing practices. 2) Within-district, demographic composition of the caseload, the application of prosecutorial-controlled sentencing tools, and sentence lengths will change as a function of temporal period, but local adjudication norms will temper such change. 3) The degree of change in local practice norms will be greater in the current policy period (beginning May, 2017) than the previous one (2010-2017) because the current policy authorizes increased punishment for defendants and includes local compliance mechanisms.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

根据相同的正式法律和政策运作的刑事法院通常会制定自己的规范和做法，从而根据案件的裁决地点而导致截然不同的司法结果。当正式法律政策发生变化时，地方法院行为者通常会以独特且不同的方式实施改革，有时甚至与政策目标不一致。该项目利用美国司法部 (DOJ) 最近对联邦刑事系统实施的重大政策变化来研究不同法院“群体”对这些变化的反应。具体来说，已经制定了新政策，敦促检察官重点关注某些类型的联邦犯罪，并要求全国各地的检察官最大限度地施加潜在的惩罚。虽然司法部的政策旨在使不同联邦地区法院的起诉实践标准化，但先前的研究表明，地方法院在将这些指令转化为行动的方式上会有所不同。该研究直接建立在 PI 之前由 NSF 资助的研究的基础上，该研究使用定性现场方法和定量方法检查了联邦法院裁决策略的管辖权差异。该项目重新访问相同的研究地点（4 个地理和人口分布不同的联邦区），以评估当前司法部的政策是否以及如何影响案件量特征（包括被告人口统计）以及审判实践和结果，重点是正式的自上而下的政策如何转化为本地化的实地法律行动。该项目利用采访、观察和来自联邦法院的行政数据，测试了三个相关假设：1）尽管政策回归了旨在通过自上而下的命令来控制当地实践的政策，但在实践中，调整将是本地化的。地区间的差异将在四组不同的实践中继续显现出来：案例选择；检控指控做法；认罪协议的条款和模式；和正式的量刑实践。 2）在地区内，案件量的人口构成、检控量刑工具的使用以及刑期长度会随着时间的推移而变化，但当地的审判规范会缓和这种变化。 3）当前政策期间（2017年5月开始）当地实践规范的变化程度将比上一政策期间（2010-2017年）更大，因为当前政策授权加大对被告的处罚力度，并包括地方合规机制。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。