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Examining Murder Convictions and Punishment

审查谋杀定罪和处罚

基本信息

批准号：
1754076
负责人：
Jeffery Ulmer
金额：
$ 30万
依托单位：
Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2018
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2018-05-15 至 2024-04-30
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1754076&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Examining Murder Convictions Punishment

项目摘要

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.

谋杀是最严重的刑事犯罪，而谋杀的量刑需要做出社会上最严重的惩罚决定。长期以来，人们一直对这些最重要的决定中的差异表示关切，最突出的是基于被告和受害者的种族/族裔和性别的差异。此外，与法律代表有关的案件结果不同，也提出了为贫困被告提供充分和公平代表的问题。不同地区之间惩罚结果的差异也是最近社会科学研究的一个主要方向的核心；刑事司法系统中的自由裁量权如何受到更大的社会政治环境的影响。这项拟议的研究为深入研究这些重要的理论和刑事司法政策问题提供了一个独特的机会。这项研究的发现将涉及多个学科，特别是犯罪学/刑事司法研究、社会学和法律研究。对于被控一级、二级或三级谋杀罪的案件，这个拟议的项目将审查：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、定罪和惩罚结果的差异模式；2)谋杀案件结果的县间差异和与法庭社会政治背景相关的差异模式；3)不同县在形成谋杀案处理的正式和非正式规范方面的质量差异，重点是指控和辩诉交易，检察官寻求死刑和撤销死刑的决定，以及量刑决定。该项目将汇编2000年至2010年宾夕法尼亚州18个县被控一级、二级和三级谋杀罪案件的统计数据，这些县占刑事杀人罪指控的79%。这些数据将被用来检验谋杀案件处理结果的个人水平差异，以及相对于法院社会政治背景特征的县之间谋杀案件结果差异。分析将侧重于以下从属变量：指控决定、定罪方式(定罪与否、认罪或审判定罪)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，他们是否撤回诉讼，以及被告是否被判处死刑。将估计三类统计模型：1)倾向分数加权和/或匹配模型，用于检查被告分组之间的个人水平差异；2)反向倾向分数加权回归(IPSWR)模型，用于检查上述因变量在个人水平结果上的县之间差异；以及3)分层Logistic和线性模型，用于检查县背景变量对因变量的影响。此外，还将收集不限成员名额的深入访谈数据，以审查各县在形成其谋杀指控的正式和非正式规范、政策和做法、定罪过程(特别是辩诉交易)、寻求死刑和撤销死刑的检察决定以及量刑决定方面的质量差异。在刑事杀人案件最多的五个县，将有40到50人接受采访；采访将包括法官、检察官、公设辩护律师和私人辩护律师。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，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。