Suchergebnisse

ABSTRACTThe present article examines the effects on sentencing of a number of variables measuring court actors and their traits. Sentencing patterns were shown to vary substantially from judge to judge but the differences were found to be related more to the types of cases judges received than to sentencing styles of individual judges. Independent of traditional sociodemographic traits of offenders and legal variables, individual judges do not appear to sentence differently. Moreover, when we estimated equations which included judicial background characteristics, there were no discernible independent effects. These findings differ from both informed intuition and inferences one might draw from previous research. Consideration of subcultures of justice and cases on which court officials disagree about sentences may help explain differences between present and past research.

This study examines the relative effects of a number of legal and extralegal factors on (1) the decision to release on recognizance and (2) the decision on amount of money bail. Social science research on these issues has been sparse compared to that on other phases of the criminal justice process. Findings from a regression analysis show that the first step of the bond disposition process, the recognizance decision, is influenced by several factors. The demeanor of defendants in open court is the most important. Net of other influences, good demeanor increases the probability of release on recognizance by 34.8%. In cases where recognizance is denied, only two variables are related significantly to the amount of money bond. Net of other influences, a felony offense (as opposed to a misdemeanor) increases predicted bail by $2300, and poor demeanor increases the predicted bail required by $1600.

The objectives of the study are : (1) to ascertain the concomitants of nuclear and extended families in industrializing societies, and (2) to determine cross-societal regularities regarding these factors. The analysis was based on data collected in sample surveys of three metro pol itan areas : Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, and Santiago. The variables considered in the investigation are: age, social status, foreign extraction, migration, and social mobility. Multiple discriminant analysis is used to determine the effects of the five variables, when taken simultaneously. They account for more than 50 per cent of correct classification of nuclear and extended families in three cities. It is concluded that the model used predicts family composition in these urbanizing societies, satisfactorily. However, a common configuration of factors relatad to three-generation households is not found across societies. Although no common pattern is ascertained, each variable is significant in one city or the other. The importance of each specific element may be related to the stage in which these societies are in the formation of their urban-industrial structures. In the process of societal change migration is significant for the nuclearity of the family in two cities and is third most important in the other urban center studied. The relevance of this phenomenon confirms expectations since migration is an intrinsic part of urbanization.