The National Institute of Justice posted the following on April 17, 2014:
Through the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, NIJ has made available the following final technical report (this report is the result of an NIJ-funded project but was not published by the U.S. Department of Justice):
Title: Missing Link: Examining Prosecutorial Decision-Making Across Federal District Courts
Author: Brian D. Johnson, University of Maryland
Abstract:
This report examines federal charging decisions in U.S. District Courts. It addresses the general lack of research on how prosecutorial decisions are made in the federal justice system by assessing the consequences of prosecutorial discretion regarding fairness, equality and consistency in federal charging and punishment decisions.
Findings from this research suggest there is little systematic evidence of age, race and gender disparities in U.S. Attorneys’ decisions regarding which cases are accepted and which are declined for prosecution. However, there is some evidence of disparities in charge reductions, with male defendants being less likely than female defendants to have their charges reduced and black and Hispanic defendants being more likely than whites to receive a reduced charge.
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