Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Foundation Website
  • Journal Home
  • Issues
    • Current Issue
    • All Issues
    • Future Issues
  • For Authors and Editors
    • Overview of RSF & How to Propose an Issue
    • RSF Style and Submission Guidelines
    • Article Submission Checklist
    • Permission Request
    • Terms of Contributor Agreement Form and Transfer of Copyright
    • RSF Contributor Agreement Form
    • Issue Editors' Agreement Form
  • About the Journal
    • Mission Statement
    • Editorial Board
    • Comments and Replies Policy
    • Journal Code of Ethics
    • Current Calls for Articles
    • Closed Calls for Articles
    • Abstracting and Indexing
    • Privacy Policy
    • Copyright and ISSN Information
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
  • Publications
    • rsf

User menu

  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
  • Publications
    • rsf
  • Log in
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences

Advanced Search

  • Foundation Website
  • Journal Home
  • Issues
    • Current Issue
    • All Issues
    • Future Issues
  • For Authors and Editors
    • Overview of RSF & How to Propose an Issue
    • RSF Style and Submission Guidelines
    • Article Submission Checklist
    • Permission Request
    • Terms of Contributor Agreement Form and Transfer of Copyright
    • RSF Contributor Agreement Form
    • Issue Editors' Agreement Form
  • About the Journal
    • Mission Statement
    • Editorial Board
    • Comments and Replies Policy
    • Journal Code of Ethics
    • Current Calls for Articles
    • Closed Calls for Articles
    • Abstracting and Indexing
    • Privacy Policy
    • Copyright and ISSN Information
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
  • Follow rsf on Twitter
  • Visit rsf on Facebook
  • Follow rsf on Google Plus
Research Article
Open Access

Bail and Pretrial Detention: Contours and Causes of Temporal and County Variation

Katherine Hood, Daniel Schneider
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences February 2019, 5 (1) 126-149; DOI: https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2019.5.1.06
Katherine Hood
aGraduate student in sociology at the University of California, Berkeley
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Daniel Schneider
bAssistant professor of sociology at the University of California
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • References
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

REFERENCES

  1. ↵
    1. Angrist, Joshua D., and
    2. Jörn-Steffen Pischke
    . 2008. Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist’s Companion. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
  2. ↵
    1. Beck, Allen J.,
    2. Thomas P. Bonczar, and
    3. Darrell K. Gilliard
    . 1993. Jail Inmates, 1992. Washington: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
  3. ↵
    1. Blalock, Hubert M.
    1967. Toward a Theory of Minority Group Relations. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
  4. ↵
    1. Bontrager, Stephanie,
    2. William Bales, and
    3. Ted Chiricos
    . 2005. “Race, Ethnicity, Threat, and the Labeling of Convicted Felons.” Criminology 43(3): 589–622.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  5. ↵
    1. Box, Steven, and
    2. Chris Hale
    . 1992. “Economic Crisis and the Rising Prisoner Population.” Crime and Social Justice 17(1): 20–35.
    OpenUrl
  6. ↵
    1. Bridges, George S., and
    2. Robert D. Crutchfield
    . 1988. “Law, Social Standing, and Racial Disparities in Imprisonment.” Social Forces 66(3): 699–724.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  7. ↵
    1. Britt, Chester L
    . 2000. “Social Context and Racial Disparities in Punishment Decisions.” Justice Quarterly 17(4): 707–32.
    OpenUrl
  8. ↵
    1. Caldeira, Greg A
    . 1983. “Elections and the Politics of Crime: Budgetary Choices and Priorities in America.” In The Political Science of Criminal Justice, edited by Stuart Nagel, Erika Fairchild, and Anthony Champaign. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas.
    1. Caldeira, Greg A., and
    2. Andrew T. Cowart
    . 1980. “Budgets, Institutions, and Change: Criminal Justice Policy in America.” American Journal of Political Science 24(3): 413–38.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  9. ↵
    1. Chiricos, Theodore G., and
    2. Miram A. Delone
    . 1992. “Labor Surplus and Punishment: A Review and Assessment of Theory and Evidence.” Social Problems 39(4): 421–46.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  10. ↵
    1. Cohen, Thomas H., and
    2. Tracey Kyckelhahn
    . 2010. Data Advisory: State Court Processing Statistics Data Limitation. Washington: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
  11. ↵
    1. Cohen, Thomas H., and
    2. Brian A. Reaves
    . 2007. Pretrial Release of Felony Defendants in State Court: State Court Processing Statistics, 1990–2004. Washington: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
  12. ↵
    1. Comfort, Megan
    . 2016. “A Twenty-Hour-A-Day Job: The Impact of Frequent Low-Level Criminal Justice Involvement on Family Life.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 665(1): 63–79.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  13. ↵
    1. D’Alessio, Stewart J., and
    2. Lisa A. Stolzenberg
    . 2002. “A Multilevel Analysis of the Relationship Between Labor Surplus and Pretrial Incarceration.” Social Problems 49(2): 178–93.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  14. ↵
    1. Davey, Joseph D
    . 1998. The Politics of Prison Expansion: Winning Elections by Waging War on Crime. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.
  15. ↵
    1. Demuth, Stephen
    . 2003. “Racial and Ethnic Differences in Pretrial Release Decisions and Outcomes: A Comparison of Hispanic, Black, and White Felony Arrestees.” Criminology 41(3): 873–908.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  16. ↵
    1. Demuth, Stephen, and
    2. Darrell Steffensmeier
    . 2004. “The Impact of Gender and Race-Ethnicity in the Pretrial Release Process.” Social Problems 51(2): 222–42.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  17. ↵
    1. Devine, F. E
    . 1991. Commercial Bail Bonding: A Comparison of Common Law Alternatives. New York: Praeger.
  18. ↵
    1. Dixon, Jo
    . 1995. “The Organizational Context of Criminal Sentencing.” American Journal of Sociology 100(5): 1157–98.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  19. ↵
    1. Dobbie, Will,
    2. Jacob Goldin, and
    3. Crystal Yang
    . 2016. “The Effects of Pre-Trial Detention on Conviction, Future Crime, and Employment: Evidence from Randomly Assigned Judges.” NBER working paper no. 22511. Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research.
  20. ↵
    1. Eisenstein, James,
    2. Roy Flemming, and
    3. Peter Nardulli
    . 1988. The Contours of Justice: Communities and Their Courts. Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown.
  21. ↵
    1. Fearn, Noelle E
    . 2005. “A Multilevel Analysis of Community Effects on Criminal Sentencing.” Justice Quarterly 22(4): 452–87.
    OpenUrl
  22. ↵
    1. Feld, Barry C
    . 1991. “Justice by Geography: Urban, Suburban, and Rural Variations in Juvenile Justice Administration.” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 82(1): 156–210.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  23. ↵
    1. Flemming, Roy
    . 1982. Punishment Before Trial: An Organizational Perspective on Felony Bail Process. New York: Longman.
    1. Frank, Mark
    . 2009. “Inequality and Growth in the United States: Evidence from a New State-Level Panel of Income Inequality Measure.” Economic Inquiry 47(1): 55–68.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  24. ↵
    1. Free, Marvin
    . 2004. “Bail and Pretrial Release Decisions.” Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice 2(4): 23–44.
    OpenUrl
  25. ↵
    1. Garland, David
    . 2001. The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in a Contemporary Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  26. ↵
    1. Goldkamp, John, and
    2. Michael Gottfredson
    . 1985. Judicial Guidelines for Bail: The Philadelphia Experiment. Philadelphia, Pa.: Temple University Press.
  27. ↵
    1. Gottschalk, Marie
    . 2014. Caught: The Prison State and the Lockdown of American Politics. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
  28. ↵
    1. Gupta, Arpit,
    2. Christopher Hansman, and
    3. Ethan Frenchman
    . 2016. “The Heavy Costs of High Bail: Evidence from Judge Randomization.” Columbia Law and Economics working paper no. 531. New York: Columbia Law School.
  29. ↵
    1. Harris, Kamala D., and
    2. Rand Paul
    . 2017. “To Shrink Jails, Let’s Reform Bail.” New York Times, July 20, A27.
    1. Heaton, Paul,
    2. Sandra Mayson, and
    3. Megan Stevenson
    . 2017. “The Downstream Criminal Justice Consequences of Pretrial Detention.” Stanford Law Review 69(3): 711–94.
    OpenUrl
  30. ↵
    1. Helms, Ronald, and
    2. David Jacobs
    . 2002. “The Political Context of Sentencing: An Analysis of Immunity and Individual Determinants.” Social Forces 81(2): 577–604.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  31. ↵
    1. ICPSR
    . 2016. “State Court Processing Statistics, 1990–2009: Felony Defendants in Large Urban Counties (ICPSR 2038).” Machine Readable Database and Documentation.
  32. ↵
    1. Jacobs, David, and
    2. Ronald E. Helms
    . 1996. “Toward a Political Model of Incarceration: A Time-Series Examination of Multiple Explanations for Prison Admission Rates.” American Journal of Sociology 102(2): 323–57.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  33. ↵
    1. Jacobs, David, and
    2. Ronald E. Helms
    . 1997. “Testing Coercive Explanations for Order: The Determinants of Law Enforcement Strength over Time.” Social Forces 75(4): 1361–92.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  34. ↵
    1. Jacobs, David, and
    2. Ronald E. Helms
    . 1999. “Collective Outbursts, Politics, and Punitive Resources: Toward a Political Sociology of Spending on Social Control.” Social Forces 77(4): 1497–524.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  35. ↵
    1. Johnson, Brian
    . 2005. “Contextual Disparities in Guidelines Departures: Courtroom Social Contexts, Guidelines Compliance, and Extralegal Disparities in Criminal Sentencing.” Criminology 43(3): 761–96.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  36. ↵
    1. Johnson, Brian
    . 2006. “The Multilevel Context of Criminal Sentencing: Integrating Judge- and County-Level Influences.” Criminology 44(2): 259–98.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  37. ↵
    1. Katz, Charles M., and
    2. Cassia C. Spohn
    . 1995. “The Effect of Race and Gender on Bail Outcomes: A Test of an Interactive Model.” American Journal of Criminal Justice 19:161–84.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  38. ↵
    1. Kleinberg, Jon,
    2. Himabindu Lakkaraju,
    3. Jure Leskovec,
    4. Jens Ludwig, and
    5. Sendhil Mullainathan
    . 2017. “Human Decisions and Machine Predictions.” Technical report. Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research.
  39. ↵
    1. Leiber, Michael J., and
    2. Kristan C. Fox
    . 2005. “Race and the Impact of Detention on Juvenile Justice Decision-Making.” Crime & Delinquency 51(4): 470–97.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  40. ↵
    1. Lessan, Gloria T
    . 1991. “Macroeconomic Determinants of Penal Policy: Estimating the Unemployment and Inflation Influences on Imprisonment Rate Changes in the United States, 1948–1985.” Crime, Law and Social Change 16(2): 177–98.
    OpenUrl
  41. ↵
    1. Lowenkamp, Christopher T.,
    2. Marie VanNostrand, and
    3. Alexander Holsinger
    . 2013a. “Investigating the Impact of Pretrial Detention on Sentencing Outcomes.” Houston, Tex.: Laura and John Arnold Foundation.
  42. ↵
    1. Lowenkamp, Christopher T.,
    2. Marie VanNostrand, and
    3. Alexander Holsinger
    . 2013b. “The Hidden Costs of Pretrial Detention” Houston, Tex.: Laura and John Arnold Foundation.
  43. ↵
    1. Minton, Todd D., and
    2. Zhen Zeng
    . 2015. “Jail Inmates at Midyear 2014.” Technical Report. Washington: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
  44. ↵
    1. Myers, Martha A., and
    2. Susette M. Talarico
    . 1987. The Social Contexts of Criminal Sentencing. New York: Springer-Verlag.
  45. ↵
    1. National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies (NAPSA
    . 2009. “The Truth About Commercial Bail Bonding in America.” Advocacy Brief 1(1).
  46. ↵
    1. National Research Council
    . 2009. Ensuring the Quality, Credibility, and Relevance of U.S. Justice Statistics, edited by Robert M. Groves and Daniel L. Cook. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press.
  47. ↵
    1. Page, Joshua,
    2. Victoria Piehowski, and
    3. Joe Soss
    . 2019. “A Debt of Care: Commercial Bail and the Gendered Logic of Criminal Justice Predation.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 5(1): 150–72. DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2019.5.1.07.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  48. ↵
    1. Petee, Thomas A
    . 1994. “Recommended for Release on Recognizance: Factors Affecting Pretrial Release Recommendations.” Journal of Social Psychology 134(3): 375–82.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
  49. ↵
    1. Phillips, Mary T
    . 2007. “Bail, Detention, and Nonfelony Case Outcomes.” New York: City Criminal Justice Agency.
  50. ↵
    1. Phillips, Mary T
    . 2008. “Bail, Detention, and Felony Case Outcomes.” Research Brief Series no. 18. New York: Criminal Justice Agency.
  51. ↵
    1. Roth, Jeffrey, and
    2. Paul Wice
    . 1980. Pretrial Release and Misconduct in the District of Columbia. Washington, D.C.: Institute for Law and Social Research.
  52. ↵
    1. Rusche, Georg, and
    2. Otto Kirchheimer
    . 2003 [1939]. Punishment and Social Structure. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books.
  53. ↵
    1. Sacks, Meghan, and
    2. Alissa R. Ackerman
    . 2014. “Bail and Sentencing: Does Pretrial Detention Lead to Harsher Punishment?” Criminal Justice Policy Review 25(1): 59–77.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  54. ↵
    1. Schlesinger, Traci
    . 2005. “Racial and Ethnic Disparity in Pretrial Criminal Processing.” Justice Quarterly 22(2): 170–92.
    OpenUrl
  55. ↵
    1. Spitzer, Steven
    . 1975. “Toward a Marxian Theory of Deviance.” Social Problems 22(5): 638–51.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  56. ↵
    1. Spohn, Cassia C
    . 2009. “Race, Sex, and Pretrial Detention in Federal Court: Indirect Effects and Cumulative Disadvantage.” Kansas Law Review 57:879–901.
    OpenUrl
  57. ↵
    1. Stevenson, Megan
    . 2016. “Distortion of Justice: How the Inability to Pay Bail Affects Case Outcomes.” Unpublished working paper, University of Pennsylvania Law School.
  58. ↵
    1. Ulmer, Jeffery T., and
    2. Brian Johnson
    . 2004. “Sentencing in Context: A Multilevel Analysis.” Criminology 42(1): 137–77.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  59. ↵
    1. Wakefield, Sara, and
    2. Christopher Uggen
    . 2010. “Incarceration and Stratification.” Annual Review of Sociology 36: 387–406.
    OpenUrlCrossRefWeb of Science
  60. ↵
    1. Wang, Xia, and
    2. Daniel Mears
    . 2015. “Sentencing and State-Level Racial and Ethnic Contexts.” Law and Society Review 49(4): 883–915.
    OpenUrl
  61. ↵
    1. Weaver, Vesla M.,
    2. Andrew Papachristos, and
    3. Michael Zanger-Tishler
    . 2019. “The Great Decoupling: The Disconnection Between Criminal Offending and Experience of Arrest Across Two Cohorts.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 5(1): 89–123. DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2019.5.1.05.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  62. ↵
    1. Weidner, Robert R.,
    2. Richard S. Frase, and
    3. Jennifer S. Schultz
    . 2005. “The Impact of Contextual Factors on the Decision to Imprison in Large Urban Jurisdictions: A Multilevel Analysis.” Crime and Delinquency 51(3): 400–24.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  63. ↵
    1. Western, Bruce
    . 2006. Punishment and Inequality in America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
  64. ↵
    1. Western, Bruce,
    2. Meredith Kleykamp, and
    3. Jake Rosenfeld
    . 2004. “Crime, Punishment, and American Inequality.” In Social Inequality, edited by Katherine Neckerman. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
  65. ↵
    1. Williams, Marion R
    . 2003. “The Effects of Pretrial Detention on Imprisonment Decisions.” Criminal Justice Review 28(2): 299–316.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
  66. ↵
    1. Yeager, Milton G
    . 1979. “Unemployment and Imprisonment.” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 70(4): 586–88.
    OpenUrlCrossRef
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences: 5 (1)
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
Vol. 5, Issue 1
1 Feb 2019
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • Cover (PDF)
  • Index by author
  • Front Matter (PDF)
Print
Download PDF
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Bail and Pretrial Detention: Contours and Causes of Temporal and County Variation
(Your Name) has sent you a message from RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
1 + 0 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.
Citation Tools
Bail and Pretrial Detention: Contours and Causes of Temporal and County Variation
Katherine Hood, Daniel Schneider
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences Feb 2019, 5 (1) 126-149; DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2019.5.1.06

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Share
Bail and Pretrial Detention: Contours and Causes of Temporal and County Variation
Katherine Hood, Daniel Schneider
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences Feb 2019, 5 (1) 126-149; DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2019.5.1.06
del.icio.us logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • BACKGROUND
    • DETERMINANTS OF BAIL AND PRETRIAL PRACTICES
    • CONTRIBUTIONS
    • DATA AND METHODS
    • RESULTS
    • DISCUSSION
    • Appendix
    • FOOTNOTES
    • REFERENCES
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • References
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

Similar Articles

Keywords

  • bail
  • pretrial detention
  • inequality

© 2025 RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences

Powered by HighWire