Pleading Innocents: Laboratory Evidence of Plea Bargaining's Innocence Problem
I recently posted my article entitled "Pleading Innocents: Laboratory Evidence of Plea Bargaining's Innocence Problem" to SSRN for free download.
Below is the article's full abstract. A free copy of the article is available for download by clicking here.
Abstract
Vanessa A. Edkins and Lucian E. Dervan, Pleading Innocents: Laboratory Evidence of Plea Bargaining’s Innocence Problem, 21 Current Research in Social Psychology 14 (2013) (peer reviewed)
We investigated plea bargaining by making students actually guilty or innocent of a cheating offense and varying the sentence that they would face if found ‘guilty’ by a review board. As hypothesized, guilty students were more likely than innocent students to accept a plea deal (i.e., admit guilt and lose credit; akin to accepting a sentence of probation) (Chi-square=8.63, p<.01) but we did not find an effect of sentence severity. Innocent students, though not as likely to plead as guilty students, showed an overall preference (56% across conditions) for accepting a plea deal. Implications and future directions are discussed.
"The Innocent Defendant’s Dilemma: An Innovative Empirical Study of Plea Bargaining’s Innocence Problem," 103 Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 1 (2013): A longer law review article discussing the findings and examining the implications of the results on the constitutionality of plea bargaining is available by clicking here.
Below is the article's full abstract. A free copy of the article is available for download by clicking here.
Abstract
Vanessa A. Edkins and Lucian E. Dervan, Pleading Innocents: Laboratory Evidence of Plea Bargaining’s Innocence Problem, 21 Current Research in Social Psychology 14 (2013) (peer reviewed)
We investigated plea bargaining by making students actually guilty or innocent of a cheating offense and varying the sentence that they would face if found ‘guilty’ by a review board. As hypothesized, guilty students were more likely than innocent students to accept a plea deal (i.e., admit guilt and lose credit; akin to accepting a sentence of probation) (Chi-square=8.63, p<.01) but we did not find an effect of sentence severity. Innocent students, though not as likely to plead as guilty students, showed an overall preference (56% across conditions) for accepting a plea deal. Implications and future directions are discussed.
"The Innocent Defendant’s Dilemma: An Innovative Empirical Study of Plea Bargaining’s Innocence Problem," 103 Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 1 (2013): A longer law review article discussing the findings and examining the implications of the results on the constitutionality of plea bargaining is available by clicking here.
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