TY - CHAP
T1 - Does Jail Derail? The State of the Literature on Cumulative Disadvantage and Pretrial Detention
AU - St. Louis, Stacie
N1 - The Handbook on Pretrial Justice covers the front end of the criminal legal system from pretrial diversion to pretrial detention or release. Often overlooked, the decisions made at the earliest phases of the criminal legal system have huge implications for defendants and their families, the community, and the system itself, and impact the entire criminal legal system.
PY - 2021/9
Y1 - 2021/9
N2 - Pretrial detention touches the lives of approximately 6.9 million Americans annually, with 96 percent of pretrial detainees held on an unaffordable bail. Despite being legally innocent and largely in poverty, pretrial detainees experience more severe case outcomes than released defendants, even when controlling for legal indicators and using quasi-experimental methods. I begin by reviewing the state of the literature on cumulative disadvantage and pretrial detention, focusing on convictions, guilty pleas, charge reductions, incarceration, and sentence length. As black and Latino males are more likely to be detained pretrial, I next review how pretrial detention indirectly amplifies disparities in case outcomes. I then identify gaps in the literature related to multi-stage analyses, under-studied measures, and qualitative methods. Finally, I discuss implications for theory and policy, connecting this literature and call for research to our current bail reform movement.
AB - Pretrial detention touches the lives of approximately 6.9 million Americans annually, with 96 percent of pretrial detainees held on an unaffordable bail. Despite being legally innocent and largely in poverty, pretrial detainees experience more severe case outcomes than released defendants, even when controlling for legal indicators and using quasi-experimental methods. I begin by reviewing the state of the literature on cumulative disadvantage and pretrial detention, focusing on convictions, guilty pleas, charge reductions, incarceration, and sentence length. As black and Latino males are more likely to be detained pretrial, I next review how pretrial detention indirectly amplifies disparities in case outcomes. I then identify gaps in the literature related to multi-stage analyses, under-studied measures, and qualitative methods. Finally, I discuss implications for theory and policy, connecting this literature and call for research to our current bail reform movement.
KW - Humanities
KW - Law
KW - Politics & international relations
KW - Social Sciences
UR - https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003149842
U2 - 10.4324/9781003149842
DO - 10.4324/9781003149842
M3 - Chapter
BT - Handbook on Pretrial Justice
ER -