Fair sentencing

该项目的前提是，德国的量刑法律和实践受到以下几个问题的困扰：缺乏明确的量刑标准的法定规定，随之而来的是不同地区的量刑实践不平等问题，以及媒体报道的部分人口与量刑实践的异化。该项目的目标是衡量这些问题的大小和一些原因。为此目的，将进行几项经验性研究：关于量刑标准的适用及其上诉审查，我们将对德国各法院的初审判决样本进行彻底分析，以说明判刑的理由；覆核涉及量刑问题的上诉法院判决，分析量刑决定在上诉时被推翻的原因（修订）；以及与刑事法庭法官就两个假设案件的量刑进行小组讨论。通过研究不同地区法院的判决，我们将能够研究量刑严重程度的地区差异的大小。为了衡量专业法官和非专业人员在量刑态度上的差异，我们在网上向两组的大样本展示了8个案例，其中包含了性别、国籍和犯罪造成的伤害等潜在相关因素的差异。通过对两组差异的评估，我们旨在确定量刑差异的数量和因素。

The project starts from the premise that sentencing law and practice in Germany is beset by several problems: a lack of clear statutory regulation of sentencing standards, an ensuing problem of unequal sentencing practices in different regions, and an alienation of segments of the population from sentencing practice as reported in the media. The goal of the project is to gauge the size and some causes of these problems. For that purpose, several empirical studies will be conducted: with regard to the application of sentencing standards and their review on appeal, we will perform a thorough analysis of samples of first-instance judgments from various German courts with regard to the reasons cited for the sentences; a review of appeals court judgments dealing with sentencing issues, analyzing the reasons for which sentencing decisions are overturned on appeal (Revision); and group discussions with criminal court judges on sentencing in two hypothetical cases. By studying decisions from geographically separate courts, we will be able to study the size of regional differences in sentencing severity. In order to gauge the difference in sentencing attitudes between professional Judges and lay persons, eight case vignettes are presented online to large samples of both groups, with variations as to potentially relevant factors such as gender, nationality, and harm caused by the offense. Through evaluating the differences between both groups, we aim at identifying the quantity and factors of differences with regard to sentencing.