Social psychology and plea bargaining: Applications, methodology, and theory.

Plea Bargaining by Defendants: A Decision Theory Approach

“…This replicates the finding of Gregory et al ( 1978) concerning severity of sentence and adds the new variable of probability of conviction to the list of factors influencing plea bargaining. The finding that both severity of sentence and probability of conviction were used by defendants is important to a decision theory analysis of plea bargaining.…”

“…If the participants were not really involved in their roles, one would have expected the results of both experiments to be the same. A further argument for the validity of this procedure comes from Gregory et al (1978) who validated roleplaying plea bargaining procedures by replicating their results in a field experiment where participants believed they were experiencing a real life crisis.…”

“…There is evidence that severity of sentence would be used. Employing a role-playing procedure, Gregory, Mowen, and Linder (1978) manipulated both severity of punishment and the innocence or guilt of the defendant. They found that subjects were more likely to accept a plea bargain when the severity of punishment upon conviction was great, although internal analyses revealed that these effects were present in guilty defendants only.…”

Plea bargaining recommendations by criminal defense attorneys: evidence strength, potential sentence, and defendant preference

“…In sum, this empirical research has suggested that potential sentence is an important factor in the plea bargaining process, when applied to mock (Gregory, Mowen, & Linder, 1978;McAllister & Bregman, 1986a) and actual criminal defendants (Bordens & Bassett, 1985), but not to mock criminal defense attorneys (McAllister & Bregman, 1986a). The research has also more uniformly suggested that probability of conviction (using differing percentages) is an important consideration to mock guilty defendants (Bordens, 1984), mock defendants (McAllister & Bregman, 1986a), and mock defense attorneys (McAllister & Bregman, 1986b).…”

The Plea Bargaining Process From the Defendant's Perspective: A Field Investigation

“…Two recent laboratory experiments (Bordens, 1984;Gregory, Mowen, & Linder, 1978) investigated the factors influencing plea-bargain decisions using a simulation methodology. Bordens found that such factors as the perceived likelihood of conviction, the promised sentences (both upon acceptance and upon rejection) and the assumed role (innocent or guilty) exerted independent influences on plea-bargain decisions.…”