Toward a method for evaluating court actor influences on plea negotiations: A preliminary exploration of public defenders.

Abstract

Plea negotiations remain difficult to study, partly because their informality implicates workgroup-related factors within decision-making. In quantitative analyses, these factors are impossible to measure using the case-level data alone. The current study proposes a combined method using survey data and administrative case data as a means of contextualizing the plea process from the standpoint of workgroup members and quantifying workgroup characteristics that can be used as variables in models predicting actual plea outcomes. A preliminary exploration of this kind is conducted with public defenders. The survey data revealed that public defenders thought pleas were necessary to manage caseloads and resources, but also felt the benefits to defendants outweighed the drawbacks. In a descriptive analysis linking survey- and case-level data, the percent of charge reductions among plea cases varied substantively based on both workgroup relationship characteristics and ideologies of the public defenders. Directions for future research adopting this type of approach are discussed.