This research empirically examines the difference that type of counsel, public or private, makes in the bail amount set for Hispanic defendants. Data were collected on all felony defendants assigned to the district court in a midwestern county. Specifically, the authors hypothesized that Hispanic defendants who retain the assistance of private counsel will receive lower bail amounts than defendants assigned a court-appointed attorney. Several independent controls were employed including the legal variables—offense seriousness and prior arrests —and the extralegal variables—sex, age, and residency . These data were analyzed using ordinary least squares multiple regression. The analyses show that although Hispanic defendants utilizing private counsel receive lower bail amounts than defendants assigned a court-appointed attorney, only the variables age, residency, and offense seriousness significantly affect bail amount set.
Albonetti, C. (1989). An integration of theories to explain judicial discretion. Social Problems, 38, 247-266.
2.
Ayres, I., & Waldfogel, J. (1994). A market test for race discrimination in bail setting. Sanford Law Review, 46, 987-1047.
3.
Bynum, T.S. (1982). Release on recognizance: Substantive or superficial?Criminology, 20, 67-82.
4.
Bynum, T.S., & Paternoster, R. (1994). Discrimination revisited: An exploration of frontstage and backstage criminal justice decision making . Sociology and Research, 69, 90-108.
5.
Clarke, S.H., & Koch, G.G. (1976). The influence of income and other factors on whether criminal defendants go to prison. Law and Society Review, 11, 57-92.
6.
Cohen, L.E., & Klugel, J.R. (1978). Determinants of juvenile court dispositions: Ascriptive and achievement factors in two metropolitan courts. American Sociological Review, 43, 162-176.
7.
Coleman v. Alabama, 399 U.S. 1 (1970).
8.
Crew, K.B. (1991). Sex differences in criminal sentencing: Chivalry or patriarchy?Justice Quarterly, 8, 59-83.
9.
Demuth, S., & Steffensmeier, D. (2004). The impact of gender and race-ethnicity in the pretrial release process. Social Problems, 51, 222-242.
10.
Espiritu, Y.L. (1992). Panethnicity and U.S. racial politics: The Asian American case. In C. Calhoun & G. Ritzer (Eds.), Racial politics: Introduction to social problems (pp. 21-38). New York: McGraw-Hill.
11.
Farnworth, M., Teske, R.H.C., Jr., & Thurman, G. (1991). Ethnic, racial, and minority disparity in felony court processing. In M. J. Lynch & E. B. Patterson (Eds.), Race and criminal justice (pp. 54-70). New York: Harrow and Heston.
12.
Flowers, R.B. (1990). Minorities and criminality. Westport, CT: Greenwood.
13.
Frazier, C.E., Bock, W., & Henretta, J.C. (1980). Pretrial release and bail decisions. Criminology, 18, 162-181.
14.
Free, M.D. (2002). Racial bias and the American criminal justice system: Race and presentencing revisited. CriticalCriminology , 10, 195-223.
15.
Freed, D., & Wald, P. (1964). Bail in the United States. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice and Vera Foundation.
16.
Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963).
17.
Goldkamp, J.S. (1985). Danger and detention: A second generation of bail reform. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 76, 1-74.
18.
Goldkamp, J.S., & Gottfredson, M. (1979). Bail decision making and pretrial detention: Surfacing policy. Law and Human Behavior , 3, 227-249.
19.
Hamilton, L.C. (1992). Regression with graphics: A second course in applied statistics. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole .
20.
Harlow, C.W. (2000). Defense counsel in criminal cases (Bureau of Justice Statistics bulletin special report). Washington: Government Printing Office.
21.
Healey, J. (1995). Race, ethnicity, and class. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
22.
Ho, T. (1998). Images of crime and punishment: Vice crime and Asian Americans. In C. R. Mann & M. S. Zatz (Eds.), Images of color, images of crime (pp. 195-204). Los Angeles: Roxbury.
23.
Holmes, M.D., Hosch, H.M., Daudistel, H.C., Perez, D.A., & Graves, J.B. (1996). Ethnicity, legal resources, and felony dispositions in two southwestern jurisdictions. Justice Quarterly, 13, 11-30.
24.
Inciardi, J.A. (1984). Criminal justice. Orlando: Academic Press.
25.
Katz, C., & Spohn, C. (1995). The effect of race and gender on bail outcomes: A test of an interactive model. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 19, 161-184.
Liska, E.M., & Tausig, M. (1979). Theoretical interpretations of social class and racial differences in legal decision-making for juveniles. Sociological Quarterly, 20, 197-207.
28.
Mann, C.R. (1993). Unequal justice: A question of color. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
29.
Mirande, A. (1987). Gringo justice. Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press.
30.
Moore, J., & Pinderhughes, R. (1993). In the barrios: Latinos and the underclass debate. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
31.
Nagel, I.H. (1983). The legal/extralegal controversy: Judicial decisions in pretrial release. Law and Society Review, 17, 481-515.
32.
National Minority Advisory Council on Criminal Justice. (1982). The inequality of justice: A report on crime and the administration of justice in the minority community. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
33.
Nielsen, M.O. (1996). Contextualization for Native American crime and criminal justice involvement. In M. O. Nielsen & R. A. Silverman (Eds.), Native Americans, crime, and justice (pp. 10-19). Boulder, CO: Westview.
34.
Ozzane, M.Q., Wilson, R.A., & Gedney, D.L. (1980). Toward a theory of bail risk. Criminology, 18, 147-161.
35.
Patterson, E.B., & Lynch, M.J. (1991). Bias in formalized bail procedures. In M. J. Lynch & E. B. Patterson (Eds.), Race and criminal justice (pp. 36-53). New York: Harrow and Heston.
36.
Petee, T. (1994). Recommended for release on recognizance: Factors affecting pretrial release recommendations. Journal of Social Psychology, 134, 327-335.
37.
Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45 (1932).
38.
Rankin, A. (1964). The effect of pretrial detention. New York University Law Review, 39, 641-655.
39.
Reeves, B., & Perez, J. (1994). Pretrial release of felony defendants, 1992: National pretrial reporting program. Retrieved February 6, 2006, from http://www.ojp.usjoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/nprp9
40.
Revised Statutes of Nebraska Annotated, Chapter 28, Section 105 (1995).
41.
Rhodes, W. (1985). Pretrial release and misconduct. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics.
42.
Rodriguez, C.E., & Cordero-Guzman, H. (1992). Placing race in context . Ethnic and Racial Studies, 15(4), 523-542.
43.
Schmalleger, F. (2001). Criminal justice today: An introductory text for the 21st century. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
44.
Senna, J.J., & Siegal, L. (1996). Introduction to criminal justice. Minneapolis/St. Paul: West. Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984).
45.
Swigert, V., & Farell, R.A. (1991). Normal homicides and the law. American Sociological Review, 42, 24-25.
46.
Turner, K.B., & Johnson, J.B. (2003). The effect of legal representation on bail decisions . Criminal Law Bulletin, 39(4), 426-444.
47.
Turner, K.B., & Johnson, J.B. (2005). A comparison of bail amounts for Hispanic, Whites, and African Americans: A single county analysis. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 30(1), 35-53.
48.
Turner, K.B., Secret, P.E., & Johnson, J.B. (2003). Race as a factor in the judicial decision of bail amount in a midwestern jurisdiction. Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, 1(3/4), 21-39.
49.
Walker, S., Spohn, C., & DeLong, M. (2000). The color of justice: Race, ethnicity, and crime in America. Belmont, CA: Wadworth .
50.
U.S. Bureau of the Census. (2001). Statistical abstract of the United States. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
