Research Coordination Network: Understanding Guilty Pleas

在美国法庭上，95%的定罪都是认罪的结果，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，将使用一组会议和论文，以创建一个新的跨学科的对话有关辩诉交易决策。第一个核心，题为检察决策：建模的过程，产生辩诉交易，将努力与刑事司法背景下的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：理解被告的作用，将集中在被告和辩护律师的角度。这个核心将明确地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：建模组织的影响，将集中在如何法庭作为一个社会实体，其自身的规范和压力，存在于政治和社会背景下的方法辩诉交易。 在所有核心中，将特别强调了解体制结构和政策选择如何影响认罪结果。 侧重于体制特征的实证研究有可能使人们对辩诉交易有更好的科学理解，并直接导致提出政策建议，以产生更公平和更有效的判决结果。 该项目将首先在2014年举行两次指导委员会会议，以确定网络议程并确定关键的重叠领域。 2014年和2015年期间，将在美国犯罪学学会、美国心理学-法律学会和经验法律的研究学会等团体的学科会议上举办小型讲习班。 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办的跨学科讲习班上得到强调。

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.