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Nudges for Judges: An Experiment on the Effect of Making Sentencing Costs Explicit.

Authors :
Aharoni E
Kleider-Offutt HM
Brosnan SF
Hoffman MB
Source :
Frontiers in psychology [Front Psychol] 2022 May 20; Vol. 13, pp. 889933. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 May 20 (Print Publication: 2022).
Publication Year :
2022

Abstract

Judges are typically tasked to consider sentencing benefits but not costs. Previous research finds that both laypeople and prosecutors discount the costs of incarceration when forming sentencing attitudes, raising important questions about whether professional judges show the same bias during sentencing. To test this, we used a vignette-based experiment in which Minnesota state judges ( N  = 87) reviewed a case summary about an aggravated robbery and imposed a hypothetical sentence. Using random assignment, half the participants received additional information about plausible negative consequences of incarceration. As predicted, our results revealed a mitigating effect of cost exposure on prison sentence term lengths. Critically, these findings support the conclusion that policies that increase transparency in sentencing costs could reduce sentence lengths, which has important economic and social ramifications.<br />Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.<br /> (Copyright © 2022 Aharoni, Kleider-Offutt, Brosnan and Hoffman.)

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1664-1078
Volume :
13
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Frontiers in psychology
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
35712212
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.889933