CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by DOCS@RWU Roger Williams University DOCS@RWU School of Justice Studies Faculty Papers School of Justice Studies 1-1-2008 Police Criminal Charging Decisions: An Examination of Post-Arrest Decision-Making Scott .W Phillips Buffalo State College Sean P. Varano Roger Williams University,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://docs.rwu.edu/sjs_fp Part of the Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons, and the Legal Theory Commons Recommended Citation Phillips, Scott nda Sean P. Varano. 2008. "Police criminal charging decision: An examination of post-arrest decision-making." Journal of Criminal Justice 36(4),: 307-315. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Justice Studies at DOCS@RWU. It has been accepted for inclusion in School of Justice Studies Faculty Papers by an authorized administrator of DOCS@RWU. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Journal of Criminal Justice 36 (2008) 307–315 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Criminal Justice Police criminal charging decisions: An examination of post-arrest decision-making Scott W. Phillips a,⁎, Sean P. Varano b a Department of Criminal Justice, Buffalo State College, 1300 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14222 b College of Criminal Justice, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115 ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Scholars have encouraged studies of police decision-making to move beyond the arrest decision into research that broadens the understanding of police behavior. The criminal charge placed by officers against offenders is largely an untouched area of study. Examining criminal charging decisions goes beyond simple dichotomous decisions, such as arrest, but instead explores the area of police leniency or punitiveness.