Date of Award
5-2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
College/School
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Department/Program
Psychology
Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair
Tina M. Zottoli
Committee Member
Jeremy Fox
Committee Member
Christopher King
Abstract
In the United States, approximately 95% of all criminal cases end in guilty pleas. Many scholars are concerned with plea bargaining’s potential to be coercive, and cite data on wrongful convictions as proof that an innocence problem exists. Estimates of false guilty pleas may range between 18 and 27 percent, though a true base rate is difficult to establish. Using vignettes, I examined the effects of guilt, trial penalty and plea discount size on plea decisions of adult participants recruited online through TurkPrime. Guilt was the strongest predictor of plea acceptance, but guilty plea rates increased for all participants with increasing discount and decreasing trial penalty, and the rate of false guilty pleas reached 18% in some conditions. Results are discussed in the context of the psychology of human decision making and in terms of their implications for public policy.
File Format
Recommended Citation
Schneider, Ryan, "How Big is Too Big? : The Potentially Coercive Effects of Plea Discount on Innocent Defendants" (2018). Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects. 149.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/149