"'Data Can Be Manipulated': How Prosecutors' Attitudes Toward Racial Disparities and Data-Informed Decision-Making Diverge" (by Maria Arndt and Rachel Silverthorn): Review 3

Vote: Publish pending minor changes

My suggestions could be easily addressed or included in the manuscript without much work. Overall, the manuscript is well-written and discusses an interesting and worthwhile topic for the field of case processing and prosecutorial attitudes.

A few minor grammatical errors within the literature review need to be corrected. This quote was taken directly from the manuscript: “For example, prosecutors may Prosecutors overwhelmingly assert that they are guided by “doing the right thing.”’

Additionally, I would reword the description of the data source under “the current study” because it becomes quite repetitive once the reader gets down to the “data and method” section.

Does the author have any demographic information about the interviewed prosecutors (sex, race, age, tenure in the field or within their particular office)? This information would be important to include for readers to consider. I would also suggest including a few of these demographics when introducing a new quote. This will contextualize the findings as well as the participants.

Typically, authors will include the percentage of respondents who discussed a specific theme. This addition brings context to the findings. If you state “some prosecutors,” what does that mean exactly? More detail is needed.

The findings and included quotes are very interesting. Nice job overall; however, the manuscript is quite long. I would challenge the author to trim or tighten it a bit.