TY - JOUR
T1 - Juvenile penalties for "lawyering up"
T2 - The role of counsel and extralegal case characteristics
AU - Armstrong, Gaylene S.
AU - Kim, Bitna
N1 - Funding Information:
Gaylene S. Armstrong is an associate professor in the College of Criminal Justice and the research director of the Correctional Management Institute of Texas at Sam Houston State University. Her research primarily focuses on the evaluation of correctional program and policy in both institutional and community corrections settings. Most recently, she began working with the Harris County District Court (TX) supported by a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to evaluate the development, implementation, and outcomes of a gender-specific treatment track for female offenders with co-occurring disorders and a history of trauma within the Harris County Adult Drug Court.
PY - 2011/11
Y1 - 2011/11
N2 - The presence of counsel for juveniles in the courtroom seems advantageous from a due process perspective, yet some studies suggest that juveniles receive harsher dispositions when represented by an attorney. This study tested whether a "counsel penalty" existed regardless of attorney type and, guided by prior sentencing literature, used a more comprehensive model to determine the influence of extralegal and contextual factors that may amplify the counsel penalty. Utilizing official data from a Northeastern state in a multilevel modeling strategy, this study found that regardless of the type of counsel retained, harsher sentences were received as compared with cases in which a juvenile was not represented by counsel even after controlling for offense type. Moreover, minority youth with public defenders and males with private counsel received harsher sentences while community characteristics did not appear to have a significant influence on sentencing decisions.
AB - The presence of counsel for juveniles in the courtroom seems advantageous from a due process perspective, yet some studies suggest that juveniles receive harsher dispositions when represented by an attorney. This study tested whether a "counsel penalty" existed regardless of attorney type and, guided by prior sentencing literature, used a more comprehensive model to determine the influence of extralegal and contextual factors that may amplify the counsel penalty. Utilizing official data from a Northeastern state in a multilevel modeling strategy, this study found that regardless of the type of counsel retained, harsher sentences were received as compared with cases in which a juvenile was not represented by counsel even after controlling for offense type. Moreover, minority youth with public defenders and males with private counsel received harsher sentences while community characteristics did not appear to have a significant influence on sentencing decisions.
KW - attorney representation
KW - juvenile detention
KW - sentencing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=80053937250&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=80053937250&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0011128711420101
DO - 10.1177/0011128711420101
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:80053937250
VL - 57
SP - 827
EP - 848
JO - Crime and Delinquency
JF - Crime and Delinquency
SN - 0011-1287
IS - 6
ER -