Politically Charged: District Attorney Partisanship, Prosecution Rates, and Recidivism

Link to full Submitted to AEJ:EP

We evaluate the causal effect of district attorney (DA) politics on criminal case dismissal rates and recidivism. Using variation in DA partisanship stemming from close elections, we find that the marginal Democratic DA is 24 percent more likely to dismiss criminal cases than Republican counterparts, and 15 percent less likely to incarcerate defendants. Strikingly, though, defendants in Democratic-led jurisdictions are no more likely to re-appear in future criminal cases, consistent with the notion that higher conviction rates have limited deterrence effects. Our findings underscore how the punitiveness of the criminal justice system hinges on the partisanship of local district attorneys.