Judicial discretion and the unfinished agenda of American bail reform: lessons from Philadelphia's evidence-based judicial strategy

Goldkamp, John S.; Vîlcică, E. Rely

doi:10.1108/s1059-4337(2009)0000047007

Cited by 14 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 12 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…First, police departments often rely on different tactics in practice (e.g., enforcement) than commonly advocated for by reformers and academics (e.g., situational crime prevention). Second, involving practitioners in the development of theory and policy may ultimately produce more buy-in among skeptics (see Goldkamp & Vîlciciã, 2009). Third, if police reformers and academics truly want police departments to do something other than what they typically do, then understanding and evaluating their perspectives should provide valuable insight for future reforms.…”

Section: Hot Spots Policingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A View Inside the “Black Box” of Hot Spots Policing From a Sample of Police Commanders

Haberman

2016

Police Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study used observations of crime strategy meetings and interviews with police commanders to ''get inside the black box of hot spots policing.'' The findings focus on what the studied police commanders believed they were doing and why they believed those tactics would be effective during hot spots policing implemented under nonexperimental conditions. An example causal model for the effectiveness of hot spots policing that emerged from the data is presented. While the commanders' views aligned with commonly used policing tactics and crime control theories, their underlying theoretical rationale is complex. The presented model provides one causal model that could be tested in future hot spots policing evaluations, and a discussion is presented of how the study's methodology can be applied in other jurisdictions to define localized causal models and improve hot spot policing evaluations.

show abstract

Section: Hot Spots Policingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A View Inside the “Black Box” of Hot Spots Policing From a Sample of Police Commanders

Haberman

2016

Police Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The speed by which pretrial release decisions are made often results in legal actors having incomplete information and a high amount of discretion in which two criteria are the basis for release decisions: public safety and likelihood of returning to court (Goldkamp & Gottfredson, ; Mayson, ; United States v. Salerno, ). Furthermore, the legal rules for pretrial release allow for judges to consider extralegal factors such as employment, community ties, and marital status when deciding whether to release someone (Goldkamp & Vilcica, ). These challenges to pretrial release are compounded by the reliance on financial conditions or bail as a requirement of release, with bail having an enduring history of negative impacts for the poor and communities of color (e.g., Ares et al., ; Demuth, ).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Public safety assessment

DeMichele

Baumgartner

Wenger

et al. 2020

Criminology & Public Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research Summary We assess the predictive validity and differential prediction by race of one pretrial risk assessment, the Public Safety Assessment (PSA). The PSA was developed with support from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation (LJAF) to reduce the burden placed on vulnerable populations at the front end of the criminal justice system. The growing and disparate use of incarceration is one of the most pressing social issues facing the United States. The implementation of risk assessments has provided fuel for both sides of the reform debate with proponents arguing that the use of these assessments offers a policy mechanism to alleviate populations and bias. Risk assessment critics, however, argue that the use of the assessments exacerbates bias and does not improve decision‐making. By examining a statewide data set from Kentucky (N = 164,597), we found the PSA to have predictive validity measures in line with what are generally accepted within the criminal justice field. The differences we found indicate the PSA scores for failure to appear (FTA) are moderated by race, but these differences do not lead to disparate impact. Policy Implications We point to data limitations and the need for localized risk assessment studies, and we emphasize that risk assessments are decision‐making tools that require ongoing refinement. Risk assessment developers, opponents, and proponents would do better to focus on the reality of risk assessments as probabilistic models. The results of these assessments cannot predict with certainty, and they are not inherently biased. Rather, criminologists and policy makers need to understand the uncertainty that comes with any predictive model.

show abstract

“…Because of the abrupt 2-year drop observed in the preintervention data, one reviewer expressed concern as to whether the noted drop is an artifact of data recording that the white modeling analyses would need to consider, rather than true series generating processes, including possible policy changes affecting the series. In fact, having investigated these and related data in a different work (Goldkamp and Vîlcicã, 2008;Goldkamp et al, 1997, we are confident that the observed drop in the series is not because of poor record keeping but reflects a long-term pretrial release policy change adopted by the Philadelphia criminal courts, that is, the implementation of evidence-based pretrial release guideline strategies, which had the aim, among others, to reduce failure-to-appear among Philadelphia defendants. As mentioned, this policy change seemed to have had a lasting impact on the bench warrants series, becoming part of their generating processes.…”

Section: Examination Of the Plotted Raw Datamentioning

confidence: 84%

Targeted Enforcement and Adverse System Side Effects: The Generation of Fugitives in Philadelphia*

Goldkamp

Vîlcică

2008

Criminology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research on targeted enforcement in high-crime places has focused on direct crime-reduction impacts, possible displacement of crime, and more recently, diffusion of benefits to adjacent areas. Studies have ignored other unanticipated negative effects that a place-oriented enforcement intervention may have on the justice system overall. Using the generation of fugitive defendants as one possible example of an important system side effect, this study proposes hypotheses relating to adverse, generalized, system side effects of a place-and crime-focused intervention, and it tests for target area and targeted crime-type effects, nontarget area and nontargeted crime-type effects, and overall system effects.The analysis employs a multiple interrupted time-series design [autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA)] to test the impact of one widely publicized, geographically targeted drug-enforcement strategy in Philadelphia (Operation Sunrise, formally launched in June 1998) on the incidence of bench warrants as a measure of fugitives (weekly aggregate bench warrants series for the period January 1994-May 2005 N = 590 observations). The findings appear to support all hypotheses as they relate to the example of the generation of fugitives, and suggest a generalized system adverse side effect from the circumscribed place-and crime-focused intervention. The implications of

show abstract

Judicial discretion and the unfinished agenda of American bail reform: lessons from Philadelphia's evidence-based judicial strategy

Cited by 14 publications

References 12 publications

A View Inside the “Black Box” of Hot Spots Policing From a Sample of Police Commanders

A View Inside the “Black Box” of Hot Spots Policing From a Sample of Police Commanders

Public safety assessment

Targeted Enforcement and Adverse System Side Effects: The Generation of Fugitives in Philadelphia*

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About