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Disparities In The Sentencing Of African American Men In Wayne County, Michigan, Brian Banks
Disparities In The Sentencing Of African American Men In Wayne County, Michigan, Brian Banks
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
AbstractThe ability of judges in the U.S. criminal justice system to administer penalties based on a defendant’s socioeconomic status has resulted in a disproportionate number of African Americans receiving harsher penalties than those of other racial groups and socioeconomic statuses. Currently, there is little evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of harsher sentencing of defendants with lower socioeconomic statuses in preventing crime or lowering recidivism, but more work is needed to clarify what sentencing factors judges use. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the factors that Wayne County, Michigan, judges used during the sentencing process of criminal defendants, along …
An Empirical Study Of Appointed Counsel Effectiveness In Jury Trials, James Patrick Hall
An Empirical Study Of Appointed Counsel Effectiveness In Jury Trials, James Patrick Hall
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Anecdotal evidence supports the belief among indigent individuals who are assigned defense counsel that they would be better represented by privately retained counsel. This perspective jeopardizes attorney effectiveness by reducing communication and trust between the attorney and client. Research on the effectiveness of counsel is sparse. The purpose of this quantitative study was to bridge this gap in knowledge by comparing the effectiveness of privately retained and publicly appointed counsel between 2008 and 2013, both before and after the imposition of state-wide compensation limitations on publicly appointed defense counsel. The theoretical framework was Stuntz's theory, which stresses that one part …