Research Coordination Network: Understanding Guilty Pleas

在美国法院的所有定罪中，95%是认罪的结果，但目前对认罪过程的研究很少。这个研究协调网络(RCN)围绕三个核心组织，将利用一系列会议和文件来创建关于辩诉决策的新的跨学科对话。第一个核心题为起诉决策：建立产生辩诉交易的过程的模型，将努力解决刑事司法背景下辩诉交易的核心难题之一--是什么激励检察官和法官。第二个核心题为《辩护决策：理解被告的角色》，将重点放在被告和辩护律师的角度。这一核心将明确关注可能影响这些决定的预期惩罚以外的其他因素。第三个核心题为工作组决策：模拟组织影响，将侧重于法庭工作组作为一个社会实体如何处理辩诉交易，该实体在政治和社会背景下存在着自己的规范和压力。在所有核心领域，将特别强调了解体制结构和政策选择如何影响答辩结果。侧重于制度特征的经验研究有可能对辩诉交易产生更好的科学理解，并直接导致对将产生更公平和更有效量刑结果的政策的建议。该项目将于2014年举行两次指导委员会会议，以确定该网络的议程，并确定重叠的关键领域。2014年至2015年期间，将在美国犯罪学学会、美国心理学-法学会和经验主义法律研究学会等组织的纪律会议上举办小型研讨会。关于辩诉交易的重要新研究将在2015年和2016年在奥尔巴尼大学举行的跨学科研讨会上得到强调。

Ninety-five percent of all convictions in American courts are the result of guilty pleas, yet very little research is currently conducted on the plea process. This Research Coordination Network (RCN), organized around three cores, will use a set of meetings and papers to create a new interdisciplinary dialogue about plea decision making.The first core, entitled Prosecutorial Decision Making: Modeling the Process that Generates Plea Bargains, will grapple with one of the central puzzles of plea bargaining in the criminal justice context -- what motivates prosecutors and judges. The second core, entitled Defense Decision-Making: Understanding the Defendant's Role, will focus on the perspective of the defendant and the defense attorney. This core will explicitly focus on other factors besides expected punishment that might affect these decisions. The third core, entitled Workgroup Decision Making: Modeling Organizational Influences, will focus on how the courtroom workgroup as a social entity with its own norms and pressures that exists within a political and social context approaches plea bargaining. Across all cores, a special emphasis will be placed on understanding how institutional structures and policy choices affect plea outcomes. Empirical studies focused on institutional features have the potential to create better scientific understanding of plea bargains and lead directly to recommendations for policies that will generate fairer and more efficient sentencing outcomes. The project will start with two steering committee meetings in 2014 to set the agenda for the network and identify key areas of overlap. Small workshops will be held at disciplinary conferences for groups such as the American Society of Criminology, American Psychology-Law Society, and Society of Empirical Legal Studies during 2014 and 2015. Important new research on plea bargaining will be highlighted during interdisciplinary workshops at the University at Albany in 2015 and 2016.