SAGE Journal Articles
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Abstract: In theory, crime victims have several rights and privileges—ranging from the rights to be heard to the right to confer with the prosecution. However, they are still considered as the forgotten individuals in the system because of underlying issues associated with the implementation of victims’ rights laws. Today, most states do not have any effective mechanisms of implementing legislation guaranteeing the rights of victims. The primary purpose of this article is to offer a comparative assessment of victims’ rights legislation in USA and to discuss some of the issues inherent in the implementation of these laws. Issues such as the lack of professional knowledge, the lack of enforcement mechanisms, strict eligibility criteria for compensation, varying definitions of victim across jurisdictions, and the limited scope of most crime victim legislation are discussed. The article also discusses ways to address the issues identified.
Journal Article 2: Kutateladze, B. L., & Lawson, V. Z. (2017). Is a plea really a bargain? An analysis of plea and trial dispositions in New York City. Crime & Delinquency, 64(7), 856–887.
Abstract: The study challenges the common notion that plea bargaining is necessarily beneficial to defendants. It examines the factors influencing the likelihood of taking a misdemeanor case to trial, and the probability of acquittal upon reaching trial. Defendants charged with more serious crimes, persons crimes, crimes with victims, and represented by private attorneys were more likely to go to trial than to be pleaded out. By contrast, very few factors influenced trial outcomes, and the effect of race was fairly weak. Perhaps most important is the finding that two in five cases going to trial resulted in acquittal, showing that guilt is not a foregone conclusion which may provide leverage to defendants in the plea-bargaining process.