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The Limits of Bail Reform: A Quasi-Experimental Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2024

Roy B. Flemming ,
C. W. Kohfeld  and
Thomas M. Uhlman
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Abstract

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This study of bail reform in a large urban court employs an interrupted time-series research design spanning a six-year period, and examines case data for over 38,000 defendants. Two reforms—creation of a pretrial release agency and adoption of deposit bail—are evaluated to determine whether they had statistically significant impacts on the likelihood of pretrial release, the probability of financial losses for defendants, and the avoidance of bondsmen in the pretrial process. Weighted regression analysis was used to compensate for the possibility of autocorrelation in the time-series data. The reforms proved a mixed success. Explanations for these findings emphasize the role of previous policy patterns and procedural rules in restraining the scope of bail reform and the political forces encouraging the use of bail for preventive detention.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , Summer 1980 , pp. 947 - 976
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 The Law and Society Association

Footnotes

*

This is a revised version of a paper presented to the 1979 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association in Washington, D.C. The authors wish to thank Michael Lewis-Beck for his comments on an earlier draft.

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