Date of Award
Spring 2026
Language
English
Embargo Period
4-27-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
College/School/Department
School of Criminal Justice
Program
Criminal Justice
First Advisor
Alissa Pollitz Worden
Subject Categories
Courts
Abstract
This dissertation is an investigation of decisions and outcomes in an important but seldom studied sector of the criminal justice system, the lower tiers of criminal courts (hereinafter referred to as LJCs). The LJCs in New York State (the subject of this dissertation) vary across two dimensions. The first dimension is court characteristics, which includes integration into a statewide court system (i.e., Justice Court vs. City Court). The second dimension is geodemographic characteristics (i.e., rural, suburban, and urban demographic characteristics). Recognizing this gap in literature, this dissertation provides an exploratory examination of the LJC’s patterns of case disposition and sentencing outcomes. Findings from descriptive statistics and regression analyses show that there is not a statistically significant difference in outcome variables. This implies that the LJCs produce similar case outcomes regardless of court characteristics or geodemographic characteristics.
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Clark, Alyssa, "The Spectrum of Limited Jurisdictions Courts: Exploring the City and Justice Courts in New York State" (2026). Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present). 416.
https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/etd/416