Individual and Organizational Factors in Prosecutorial Decision-Making

在过去的十年里，学者们把注意力转向了刑事司法系统中决策的动态研究。这些工作的大部分都集中在法院和有关量刑和假释的重要决定上。同样重要的是起诉方律师在面对案件时作出的决定，是签发逮捕令、提出指控，还是进行辩诉交易。虽然有关于检察官行为的研究，但迄今为止的研究通常集中在个人决策或法院的组织背景上。将两者合并的尝试并不十分成功，部分原因是缺乏对适当的组织和认知模型的考虑。劳马博士试图通过调查检察官在处理刑事案件时对图式或认知模型的使用，来整合个人和组织的视角。据推测，这些图式主要来源于检察官工作的组织背景。基本设计要求两步数据收集：第一阶段包括深度访谈、系统观察和从大约1500个案例档案中提取的档案数据。第二阶段的数据收集是基于对检察官的计算机辅助访谈，检察官将根据真实案件的样本对案件片段作出回应。计算机将记录检察官为做出决定而选择的变量、选择变量的顺序和时间，以便对顺序决策进行分析。本研究有望促进我们对刑事司法系统中组织因素对个人层面决策的影响的理解。与以往的研究相比，小插曲分析在更复杂的情境和更正式的程序中对图式的使用进行了特别的测试。此外，使用小插曲来研究顺序决策和信息搜索是一种新的方法，可能对其他设置有用。

Over the past decade, scholars have turned their attention to examining the dynamics of decisionmaking in the criminal justice system. Much of this work has focused on the courts and important decisions surrounding sentencing and parole. Of equal importance are the decisions made by prosecuting attorneys in confronting whether to issue warrants, file charges, or plea bargain a case. While studies exist on prosecutors' behavior, research to date has typically concentrated either on individual decisonmaking or on the organizational context of the court. Attempts to merge the two have not been very successful due in part to a lack of consideration of appropriate organizational and cognitive models. Dr. Rauma seeks to integrate individual and organizational perspectives by investigating prosecutors' use of schemas, or cognitive models, in their processing of criminal cases. It is hypothesized that these schemas are derived primarily from the organizational context in which prosecutors work. The basic design calls for a two-step data collection: Phase one consists of in-depth interviews, systematic observation, and archival data drawn from approximately 1500 case files. The Phase two data collection is based on a computer-assisted interview of prosecutors who will respond to case vignettes on a sample of real cases. The computer will record the variables that prosecutors select to make decisions, the order in which the variables are selected, and the time to do so, permitting analysis of sequential decisionmaking. This research promises to advance our understanding of the influence of organizational factors on individual level decisionmaking in the criminal justice system. The vignette analysis in particular tests for schema use with more complex situations and more formal procedures than in previous studies. Also, the use of vignettes for the study of sequential decisionmaking and information search is a new approach that may be useful for other settings.