Factors influencing plea bargaining decisions by prosecutors and defense attorneys

影响检察官和辩护律师辩诉交易决定的因素

• 批准号: 0921633
• 负责人: Steven Penrod
• 金额: $ 7.71万
• 依托单位: CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0921633&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Factors; influencing; plea; bargaining; decisions

There is a large body of research concerning factors related to eyewitness accuracy and on the influence of eyewitness evidence on juror judgments. However, this research largely ignores that approximately 90 percent of cases are resolved through plea bargaining.Existing research on factors influencing attorneys' plea bargaining suggests decisions are driven by the strength of evidence against a defendant. Prosecutors offer a plea bargain when the evidence is weak and defense attorneys recommend a plea bargain when evidence is strong. It is possible that aspects of eyewitness identification evidence may influence attorneys' plea bargaining decisions. However, it is unclear whether attorneys are sensitive to variations in the quality of eyewitness evidence. Research indicates attorneys report awareness about the influence of some witnessing factors on identification accuracy while demonstrating a lack of knowledge about the influence of other factors. In addition, defense attorneys and prosecuting attorneys may have different levels of awareness of the relationships among different witnessing factors and identification accuracy. Thus, it is unclear how variations in eyewitness evidence strength will influence attorneys' actual behavior. In addition, it is not known how other legal factors (i.e., pretrial publicity, defendant's prior record) will interact with eyewitness evidence quality to influence attorneys' plea bargaining decisions. This project consists of two studies to investigate factors that influence plea bargaining decisions. Study 1 explores whether prosecutors and defense attorneys are sensitive to variations in the quality of eyewitness evidence. Several factors related to eyewitness accuracy are manipulated. After reading a case summary, attorneys will rate their willingness to offer/recommend a plea bargain and their expectations about a jury verdict if the case were to go to trial. Study 2 manipulates the quality of eyewitness identification evidence and the presence of other legal factors that may influence plea bargaining behavior.

关于目击证人证词的准确性以及目击证人证词对陪审员判断的影响，已有大量的研究。然而，这项研究在很大程度上忽略了一个事实，即大约90%的案件是通过辩诉交易解决的。对影响律师辩诉交易的因素的现有研究表明，决定是由不利于被告的证据的力度驱动的。检察官在证据不足时提出辩诉交易，辩护律师在证据充足时建议进行辩诉交易。目击者辨认证据的某些方面可能会影响律师的辩诉交易决定。然而，尚不清楚律师是否对目击证人证据质量的变化敏感。研究表明，律师报告意识到一些目击因素对鉴定准确性的影响，而对其他因素的影响缺乏了解。此外，辩护律师和公诉律师对不同目击因素与识别准确性之间的关系可能有不同程度的认识。因此，尚不清楚目击证人证据强度的变化将如何影响律师的实际行为。此外，尚不清楚其他法律因素（即审前宣传、被告先前记录）如何与目击证人证据质量相互作用，从而影响律师的辩诉交易决定。本项目包括两项研究，以调查影响辩诉交易决策的因素。研究1探讨了检察官和辩护律师是否对目击证人证据质量的变化敏感。与目击证人的准确性有关的几个因素被操纵了。在阅读了案件摘要后，律师将评估他们提出/推荐辩诉交易的意愿，以及如果案件进入审判阶段，他们对陪审团裁决的期望。研究2操纵目击证人鉴定证据的质量和其他可能影响辩诉交易行为的法律因素的存在。