Every Mind is a Different World: do Judges Truly Decide in Such Diverse Ways?

Abstract

In this study, we investigated judicial behavior during custody hearings in Brazil, a legal proceeding in which judges determine whether the arrested person should be kept in custody or released pending trial. Drawing on primary data obtained from hearings held between 2015 and 2016, our objective was to investigate the consistency of judges' decisions and discern whether these decisions were influenced by individual ideologies. We employed semi-structured interviews, which we contend to be a valuable research method, to evaluate the judges' ideologies. Our findings revealed that the judge aligning with a punitivist stance in the interviews exhibited a tendency for issuing more pretrial detentions. Additionally, using two binomial regression models, we highlighted how these understandings serve as a factor that differentiates the decisions made by the two judges. Consequently, our findings confirm the hypothesis that ideology plays a pivotal role in comprehending the intricacies of the judicial decision-making process in Brazil.