We investigate path dependence and barriers to the acceptance and implementation of reform-minded prosecution, which focuses on reducing unnecessary incarceration, promoting fairness, engaging with the community, and improving accountability in the criminal justice system.
Method:
Using semistructured interviews with 47 prosecutors in two Florida jurisdictions, both with newly elected state attorneys, we explore reform-minded prosecution priorities and barriers to their effective implementation.
Results:
Findings suggest that though reform-minded priorities are present in the study prosecutor’s offices, existing prosecutorial norms, case-focused decision-making, policy ambiguities, and communication challenges serve as barriers to their effective implementation.
Conclusions:
The study highlights the role that line agents play in determining the success of reform-minded prosecution. It also identifies key barriers to reform that reform-minded prosecutors must overcome if they are to achieve meaningful changes toward greater effectiveness, transparency, and impartiality in prosecution.
BeckettKatherine. 2018. “The Politics, Promise, and Peril of Criminal Justice Reform in the Context of Mass Incarceration.” Annual Review of Criminology1:235–59.
10.
BeckettKatherineReostiAnnaKnaphusEmily. 2016. “The End of an Era? Understanding the Contradictions of Criminal Justice Reform.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science664:238–59.
11.
BermanGregFoxAubrey. 2010. Trial and Error in Criminal Justice Reform: Learning from Failure. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.
12.
BrennanTim. 1999. “Implementing Organizational Change in Criminal Justice: Some Lessons from Classification Systems.” Corrections Management Quarterly3:11–27.
CissnerAmanda B.FaroleDonald J.. 2009. Avoiding Failures of Implementation: Lessons from Process Evaluations. New York: Center for Court Innovation.
16.
ClairMatthewWinterAlix S.. 2016. “How Judges Think about Racial Disparities: Situational Decision-making in the Criminal Justice System.” Criminology54:332–59.
17.
ClearTodd R.FrostNatasha A.. 2015. The Punishment Imperative: The Rise and Failure of Mass Incarceration in America. New York: NYU Press.
18.
DaganDavidTelesSteven M.. 2014. “Locked in? Conservative Reform and the Future of Mass Incarceration.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science651:266–76.
19.
DarrochSteveMazerolleLorraine. 2013. “Intelligence-led Policing: A Comparative Analysis of Organizational Factors Influencing Innovation Uptake.” Police Quarterly16:3–37.
20.
DavisAngela J.2007. Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
21.
EdelmanLauren B.UggenChristopherErlangerHoward S.. 1999. “The Endogeneity of Legal Regulation: Grievance Procedures as Rational Myth.” American Journal of Sociology105:406–54.
22.
EisensteinJamesJacobHerbert. 1977. Felony Justice: An Organizational Analysis of Criminal Courts. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, and Company.
23.
EngelRobin S.WordenRobert E.. 2003. “Police Officers’ Attitudes, Behavior, and Supervisory Influences: An Analysis of Problem Solving.” Criminology41:131–66.
24.
FairfaxRoger A.Jr., 2012. “The Smart on Crime Prosecutor.” Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics25:905–12.
25.
FeeleyMalcolm M.1973. “Two Models of the Criminal Justice System: An Organizational Perspective.” Law & Society Review7:407–25.
26.
FeeleyMalcolm M.KaminSam. 1996. “The Effect of ‘Three Strikes and You’re Out’ on the Courts: Looking Back to See the Future.” Pp. 135–54 in Three Strikes and You’re Out: Vengeance as Public Policy, edited by ShichorDavidSechrestDale K.. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
27.
FelkenesGeorge T.1975. “The Prosecutor: A Look at Reality.” Southwestern University Law Review7:98–123.
FisherStanley Z.1988. “In Search of the Virtuous Prosecutor: A Conceptual Framework.” American Journal of Criminal Law15:197–261.
32.
FloydSteven W.WooldridgeBill. 1994. “Dinosaurs or Dynamos? Recognizing Middle Management’s Strategic Role.” Academy of Management Perspectives8:47–57.
33.
ForstBrian. 2002. “Prosecution.” Pp. 509–36 in Crime: Public Policies for Crime Control, 2nd ed., edited by WilsonJames Q.PetersiliaJoan. Oakland, CA: ICS Press.
34.
FrederickBruceStemenDon. 2012. Anatomy of Discretion: An Analysis of Prosecutorial Decision Making—Summary Report. New York: Vera Institute of Justice.
35.
FyfeJames J.1988. “Police Use of Deadly Force: Research and Reform.” Justice Quarterly5:165–205.
36.
GordonSanford C.HuberGregory A.. 2002. “Citizen Oversight and the Electoral Incentives of Criminal Prosecutors.” American Journal of Political Science46: 34–51.
37.
GottschalkMarie. 2015. Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
38.
HarrisKamala D.2009. Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make us Safer. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.
JacobyJoan E.1980. The American Prosecutor: A Search for Identity. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
43.
JohnsonBrian D.KingRyan D.SpohnCassia. 2016. “Sociolegal Approaches to the Study of Guilty Pleas and Prosecution.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science12:479–95.
44.
LevineKay L.2005. “The New Prosecution.” Wake Forest Law Review40:1125–214.
45.
LivianYves-FrédéricBurgoyneJohn G., eds. 1997. Middle Managers in Europe. London, England: Routledge.
46.
LynchMona. 1998. “Waste Managers? The New Penology, Crime Fighting and the Parole Identity.” Law & Society Review32:839–70.
47.
LynchMona. 2019. “Booker Circumvention: Adjudication Strategies in the Advisory Sentencing Guidelines Era.” NYU Review of Law and Social Change43:59–107.
48.
LynchMonaOmoriMarisa. 2014. “Legal Change and Sentencing Norms in the Wake of Booker: The Impact of Time and Place on Drug Trafficking Cases in Federal Court.” Law & Society Review48:411–45.
49.
MahoneyJames. 2000. “Path Dependence in Historical Sociology.” Theory and Society29(4):507–48.
50.
MitchellOjmarrh. 2005. “A Meta-analysis of Race and Sentencing Research: Explaining the Inconsistencies.” Journal of Quantitative Criminology21(4):439–66.
51.
NVivo. 2015. NVivo Qualitative Data Analysis Software, Version 11. Melbourne, Australia: QSR International.
52.
PageJoshua. 2011. “Prison Officer Unions and the Perpetuation of the Penal Status Quo.” Criminology & Public Policy10:735–70.
53.
PfaffJohn. 2017. Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform. New York: Basic Books.
54.
PiersonPaul. 2000. “Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics.” American Political Science Review94: 251–268.
RengifoAndres F.StemenDonAmidonEthan. 2017. “When Policy Comes to Town: Discourses and Dilemmas of Implementation of a Statewide Reentry Policy in Kansas.” Criminology55:603–30.
57.
RobertsJulian V.StalansLoretta J.. 2000. Crime, Criminal Justice, and Public Opinion. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
58.
RudesDanielle S.2012. “Framing Organizational Reform: Misalignments and Disputes among Parole and Union Middle Managers.” Law & Policy34:1–31.
SchulhoferStephen J.NagelIlene H.. 1989. “Negotiated Pleas under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines: The First Fifteen Months.” American Criminal Law Review27:231–88.
62.
SchulhoferStephen J.NagelIlene H.. 1996. “Plea Negotiations under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines: Guidelines Circumvention and its Dynamics in the Post-Mistretta Period.” Northwestern University Law Review91:1284–316.
63.
SeedsChristopher. 2017. “Bifurcation Nation: American Penal Policy in Late Mass Incarceration.” Punishment & Society19:590–610.
64.
SimonJonathan. 2017. “Beyond Tough on Crime: Towards a Better Politics of Prosecution.” Pp. 250–75 in Prosecutors and Democracy: A Cross-national Study, edited by LangerMaximoSklanskyDavid A.. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
65.
SklanskyDavid A.2017. “The Changing Political Landscape for Elected Prosecutors.” Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law14:647–74.
66.
SklanskyDavid A.2018. “The Problem with Prosecutors.” Annual Review of Criminology1:451–69.
67.
SpohnCassia. 2000. “Thirty Years of Sentencing Reform: The Quest for a Racially Neutral Sentencing Process.” Criminal Justice3:427–501.
68.
SteinerBenjaminTravisLawrence F.IIIMakariosMatthew D.. 2011. “Understanding Parole Officers’ Responses to Sanctioning Reform.” Crime & Delinquency57:222–46.
69.
TaxmanFaye S.BelenkoSteven, eds. 2012. Implementing Evidence-based Practices in Community Corrections and Addiction Treatment. New York: Springer.
70.
TaxmanFaye S.GordonJill A.. 2009. “Do Fairness and Equity Matter? An Examination of Organizational Justice among Correctional Officers in Adult Prisons.” Criminal Justice and Behavior36:695–711.
71.
ThorpeRebecca U.2015. “Perverse Politics: The Persistence of Mass Imprisonment in the Twenty-first Century.” Perspectives on Politics13:618–37.
72.
TravisJeremyWesternBruceStevens RedburnF., eds. 2014. The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
73.
UlmerJeffrey T.1997. Social Worlds of Sentencing: Court Communities under Sentencing Guidelines. Albany: State University of New York Press.
74.
UlmerJeffrey T.2012. “Recent Developments and New Directions in Sentencing Research.” Justice Quarterly29:1–40.
75.
UtzPamela J.1978. Settling the Facts: Discretion and Negotiation in Criminal Court. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
76.
VermaAnjuli. 2015. “The Law-before: Legacies and Gaps in Penal Reform.” Law & Society Review49:847–82.
77.
VidalSarahSkeemJennifer L.. 2007. “Effect of Psychopathy, Abuse, and Ethnicity on Juvenile Probation Officers’ Decision-making and Supervision Strategies.” Law and Human Behavior31:479–98.
78.
ViglioneJillRudesDanielle S.TaxmanFaye S.. 2015. “Misalignment in Supervision: Implementing Risk/Needs Assessment Instruments in Probation.” Criminal Justice and Behavior42:263–85.
79.
WeaverVesla M.2012. “The Significance of Policy Failures in Political Development: The Law Enforcement Assistance Administration and the Growth of the Carceral State.” Pp. 221–54 in Living Legislation: Durability, Change, and the Politics of American Lawmaking, edited by JenkinsJeffery A.PatashnikEric M.. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
80.
WordenAlissa P.1995. “The Judge’s Role in Plea Bargaining: An Analysis of Judges’ Agreement with Prosecutors’ Sentencing Recommendations.” Justice Quarterly12:257–78.
81.
WrightRonald F.2009. “How Prosecutor Elections Fail Us.” Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law6:581–610.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
