Examining Murder Convictions and Punishment

谋杀罪是最严重的刑事犯罪，对谋杀罪的判决是社会上最重要的惩罚决定。 长期以来，人们一直关注这些最重要的决定中的不平等，最突出的是基于被告和受害者的种族/族裔和性别的不平等。 此外，与法律的代表有关的案件结果的差异引起了贫困被告是否有适当和公平代表的问题。 惩罚结果的地区之间的变化也是社会科学研究的一个主要最近方向的核心;刑事司法系统中的自由裁量权如何被更大的社会政治环境塑造。 这项拟议的研究提供了一个独特的机会，深入探讨这些重要的理论和刑事司法政策问题。 这项研究的结果将是跨学科的兴趣，特别是犯罪学/刑事司法研究，社会学和法律的研究。 对于被控一级、二级或三级谋杀的案件，本拟议项目将研究：1）与被告和受害者种族/民族、受害者性别和年龄以及辩护代表类型有关的指控、定罪和处罚结果的差异模式; 2）谋杀案件结果的县间差异以及与法院社会政治背景有关的差异模式; 3）各州在正式和非正式规范方面存在质的差异，这些规范影响着谋杀案的处理，重点是指控和辩诉交易，检察官寻求死刑和如果寻求死刑则撤销死刑的决定，以及判决决定。该项目将汇编来自法院和检察官档案的统计数据，这些档案涉及被指控犯有第一、第二、宾夕法尼亚州18个县的三级谋杀案占2000年至2010年刑事杀人指控的79%。 这些数据将被用来检查个人层面的差异，谋杀案的处理结果，县之间的差异，谋杀案的结果相对于法院的社会政治背景功能。 分析将集中在以下因变量：指控决定，定罪模式（定罪与否，定罪认罪或审判），和判刑。 对于一级谋杀指控，分析将审查检察官是否寻求死刑，他们是否撤回该文件，以及被告是否被判处死刑。 将估计三类统计模型：1）倾向评分加权和/或匹配模型，以检查被告分组之间的个人水平差异; 2）反向倾向评分加权回归（IPSWR）模型，以检查上述因变量上个人水平结果的县间差异;（3）多层次Logistic模型和线性模型分析县域背景变量对因变量的影响。 此外，将收集不限成员名额的深入访谈数据，以检查各县之间在正式和非正式规范，政策和实践方面的质的差异，这些规范，政策和实践塑造了他们的谋杀指控，定罪过程（特别是辩诉交易），寻求死刑和撤回死刑的检察决定，以及量刑决定。 将在五个凶杀案最多的县采访40到50个人;采访将包括法官、检察官、公设辩护人和私人辩护律师。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Murder is the most serious criminal offense, and murder sentencing entails the most consequential punishment decisions in society. There has been long-standing concern about disparity in these most consequential decisions, most prominently, disparity based on the race/ethnicity and gender of defendants and victims. In addition, differences in case outcomes related to legal representation raise issues of adequate and fair representation for indigent defendants. Variation between locales in punishment outcomes are also central to a major recent direction of social science research; how discretion in the criminal justice system is shaped by larger socio-political environments. This proposed research presents a unique opportunity to delve deeper into these important theoretical and criminal justice policy concerns. This study's findings would be of interest across several disciplines, especially criminology/criminal justice studies, sociology, and legal studies. For cases charged with first, second, or third degree murder, this proposed project will examine: 1) patterns of disparity in charging, conviction, and punishment outcomes related to defendant and victim race/ethnicity, victim gender and age, and type of defense representation; 2) between-county differences in murder case outcomes and patterns of disparity in relation to court sociopolitical contexts; and 3) qualitative differences between counties in their formal and informal norms shaping murder case processing, focusing on charging and plea bargaining, prosecutorial decisions to seek the death penalty and to retract the death penalty if sought, and sentencing decisions.The project will compile statistical data from court and prosecutor files on cases charged with first, second, and third-degree murder in 18 Pennsylvania counties that account for 79% of the criminal homicide charges from 2000-2010. These data will be used to examine individual-level differences in murder case processing outcomes, and between-county differences in murder case outcomes relative to court sociopolitical contextual features. Analyses will focus on the following dependent variables: charging decisions, mode of conviction (conviction or not, and conviction by guilty plea or trial), and sentence. For first degree murder charges, analyses will examine whether prosecutors seek the death penalty and whether they retract that filing, and whether defendants receive the death penalty. Three classes of statistical models will be estimated: 1) propensity score weighting and/or matching models to examine individual-level differences between groupings of defendants; 2) inverse propensity score weighted regression (IPSWR) models to examine between-county differences in individual-level outcomes on the dependent variables above; and 3) hierarchical logistic and linear models to examine the effects of county contextual variables on the dependent variables. In addition, open-ended, in-depth interview data will be collected to examine qualitative differences between counties in their formal and informal norms, policies, and practices shaping their murder charging, conviction processes (especially plea bargaining), prosecutorial decisions to seek the death penalty and to retract the death penalty if it is sought, and sentencing decisions. Forty to fifty individuals will be interviewed in the five counties with the most criminal homicide cases; interviews will include judges, prosecutors, public defenders, and private defense attorneys.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.