Does Criminal Specialization Predict Case Processing?

Theories of sentencing have pointed out the association between the sentence and the courtroom workgroup’s joint assessment of defendants’ risk and culpability. One of the most important indicators of risk and culpability is prior criminal records. Types of crimes and pattern of prior criminal event...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCrime and delinquency Vol. 65; no. 12; pp. 1648 - 1688
Main Author Yan, Shi
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.11.2019
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Crime
Criminal records
Criminal sentences
Culpability
Defendants
Discourse
Dismissal
Imprisonment
Latent class analysis
Risk assessment
Robbery
Specialists
Specialization
Theft
criminal specialization
latent class analysis
case processing
sentencing
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Summary:Theories of sentencing have pointed out the association between the sentence and the courtroom workgroup’s joint assessment of defendants’ risk and culpability. One of the most important indicators of risk and culpability is prior criminal records. Types of crimes and pattern of prior criminal events are an important part of the legal discourse around sentencing. This discussion is conceptually similar to the criminal career concept of criminal specialization. In the present study, latent class analysis (LCA) is used to measure criminal specialization. The cumulative disadvantage perspective is incorporated into the article to model how specialization predicts a series of case processing outcomes—dismissal, charge reduction, incarceration, and length of incarceration. The analysis found specialists of the current crime—robbery defendants who specialized in robbery and larceny defendants who specialized in larceny—generally received less favorable outcomes.
ISSN:0011-1287
1552-387X
DOI:10.1177/0011128718765123