 This focal concerns perspective has become a major conceptual framework used in sentencing research, and has recently been used in a variety of studies to examine other criminal justice decision making sites as well, such as charging and plea bargaining, probation revocation, and parole decisions.In addition, Ulmer's research has been instrumental in studying how court prosecution and sentencing are influenced by courts' social and organizational contexts.Ulmer has advocated for the "court communities" theoretical perspective on criminal court organization, which depicts courts through the metaphor of communities, with their own distinctive organizational culture, norms, organizational relationships, and local influences.