NCJ Number
87097
Editor(s)
V J Konecni,
E B Ebbesen
Date Published
1982
Length
413 pages
Annotation
This book offers an empirical and quantitative analysis of participants' decisionmaking in the criminal justice system: the offender, the eyewitness, the police officer, the prosecutor, the defense attorney, the judge, the juror, the probation officer, and the parole board member.
Abstract
Following two introductory chapters on theory and methods, several chapters discuss key decision points in the processing of a criminal case, from the decision to commit a crime through the decision to grant parole. Key issues include the victim's decision to report the crime, the police officer's decision to make an arrest, the judge's decision on the amount of bail to set, the prosecutor's decision about which charges to file, the jury's decision to convict, and the judge's sentencing decision. Each chapter attempts to apply the insights of social and legal psychology to factors influencing the decision. In the final chapter, some recommendations for changes in the criminal justice system are suggested. The principal recommendation is that on-line data-gathering procedures capable of encoding case characteristics be instituted at each applicable decision point, permitting the development of reliable causal models. Most chapters report research data and provide references. For individual entries, see NCJ-87098-87110.