THE EFFECT ON PLEA BARGAINING OF THE FORM OF CONCESSIONS: A THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS (CHARGE, SENTENCE, ALASKA)

LINDA CAROL MCCARTHY, Purdue University

Abstract

The plea bargain, an agreement between the prosecutor and the defendant where the defendant pleads guilty to avoid a trial in exchange for certain concessions from the prosecutor, is an established practice of the criminal justice system. The concessions granted in return for a guilty plea can take two distinct forms: sentence concessions and charge concessions. One factor that affects the likelihood of a case being resolved by a guilty plea rather than a trial is the extent and the form of the concessions that the defendant will receive if s/he pleads guilty. In August 1975, Alaska changed from a judicial system which allowed sentence concessions to one in which a guilty plea could be induced by only charge concessions. To understand how a judicial system adapts to such a change, a model is constructed which focuses on the discontinuity of the concessions offered in return for a guilty plea when only charge concessions are possible. This model expands on existing plea bargaining models which implicity assume concessions are continuously adjustable. Implications derived from the model are tested using data from a U.S. Department of Justice and Law Enforcement Administration study of the Alaskan Courts from August 1974 to August 1976. The results from testing the model indicate that a defendant is more likely to plead guilty in a judicial system with sentence concessions. This is because sentence concessions are continuously adjustable while charge concessions are not. The results also show that the cases most affected by a change from a system with to one without sentence concessions are those involving offenses for which there are few alternative offenses to which a prosecutor could allow a defendant to plead guilty. Thus, the cases most affected are those in which the concessions exchanged for a guilty plea are the least continuously adjustable. The results however, are not consistent with the predicted increase in our measure of charge concessions and the predicted decrease in our measure of sentence concessions.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Economics|Law

COinS