Racial disparity in plea bargaining is nearly unstudied despite its centrality

Evidence

Among these decision points, initial case filing decision has been most researched, which is understandable given that prosecutorial offices collect more reliable data on this topic. Overall eighteen out of thirty-four studies examined disparities at the case filing stage. Data and research are especially lacking on plea bargaining decisions. The report found only one study that explicitly focused on racial disparities in guilty pleas. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 619

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the observation that data availability, not importance, drives which stages get researched — an echo of the mismatch between research attention and where bias actually lands. — connects to: Plea bargaining dominated American courts by the early 1900s, not recently — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1767