Research Coordination Network: Understanding Guilty Pleas

研究协调网络：理解认罪

• 批准号: 1324283
• 负责人: Shawn Bushway
• 金额: $ 29.87万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Albany
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-01 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1324283&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Research; Coordination; Network; Understanding; Guilty

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.

美国法院95%的定罪都是认罪的结果，但目前对认罪程序的研究很少。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论文来创建一个关于请求决策的新的跨学科对话。第一个核心，题为“检察决策：辩诉交易过程建模”，将努力解决刑事司法背景下辩诉交易的核心难题之一——是什么激励了检察官和法官。第二个核心，题为“辩护决策：理解被告的角色”，将侧重于被告和辩护律师的观点。这个核心将明确关注除了预期惩罚之外可能影响这些决定的其他因素。第三个核心，题为“工作组决策：组织影响建模”，将侧重于法庭工作组作为一个社会实体，在政治和社会背景下存在着自己的规范和压力，如何处理辩诉交易。在所有核心中，将特别强调了解制度结构和政策选择如何影响认罪结果。以制度特征为重点的实证研究有可能更好地科学理解辩诉交易，并直接提出政策建议，从而产生更公平、更有效的量刑结果。该项目将于2014年召开两次指导委员会会议，为该网络制定议程，并确定关键的重叠领域。小型研讨会将于2014年和2015年期间在美国犯罪学学会、美国心理法律学会和实证法律研究学会等学科会议上举行。关于辩诉交易的重要新研究将在2015年和2016年奥尔巴尼大学的跨学科研讨会上得到重点介绍。