Correctional “Free Lunch”? Cost Neglect Increases Punishment in Prosecutors

Prosecutors can influence judges’ sentencing decisions by the sentencing recommendations they make—but prosecutors are insulated from the costs of those sentences, which critics have described as a correctional “free lunch.” In a nationally distributed survey experiment, we show that when a sample o...

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Autores principales:	Eyal Aharoni, Heather M. Kleider-Offutt, Sarah F. Brosnan
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:	prosecution sentencing punishment decision making cost-benefit analysis cost discounting Psychology BF1-990
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/f4e467e83003478592a66231426513a5
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:f4e467e83003478592a66231426513a52021-11-12T05:55:10ZCorrectional “Free Lunch”? Cost Neglect Increases Punishment in Prosecutors1664-107810.3389/fpsyg.2021.778293https://doaj.org/article/f4e467e83003478592a66231426513a52021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.778293/fullhttps://doaj.org/toc/1664-1078Prosecutors can influence judges’ sentencing decisions by the sentencing recommendations they make—but prosecutors are insulated from the costs of those sentences, which critics have described as a correctional “free lunch.” In a nationally distributed survey experiment, we show that when a sample of (n=178) professional prosecutors were insulated from sentencing cost information, their prison sentence recommendations were nearly one-third lengthier than sentences rendered following exposure to direct cost information. Exposure to a fiscally equivalent benefit of incarceration did not impact sentencing recommendations, as predicted. This pattern suggests that prosecutors implicitly value incorporating sentencing costs but selectively neglect them unless they are made explicit. These findings highlight a likely but previously unrecognized contributor to mass incarceration and identify a potential way to remediate it.Eyal AharoniEyal AharoniEyal AharoniHeather M. Kleider-OffuttHeather M. Kleider-OffuttSarah F. BrosnanSarah F. BrosnanSarah F. BrosnanSarah F. BrosnanFrontiers Media S.A.articleprosecutionsentencingpunishmentdecision makingcost-benefit analysiscost discountingPsychologyBF1-990ENFrontiers in Psychology, Vol 12 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	prosecution sentencing punishment decision making cost-benefit analysis cost discounting Psychology BF1-990
spellingShingle	prosecution sentencing punishment decision making cost-benefit analysis cost discounting Psychology BF1-990 Eyal Aharoni Eyal Aharoni Eyal Aharoni Heather M. Kleider-Offutt Heather M. Kleider-Offutt Sarah F. Brosnan Sarah F. Brosnan Sarah F. Brosnan Sarah F. Brosnan Correctional “Free Lunch”? Cost Neglect Increases Punishment in Prosecutors
description	Prosecutors can influence judges’ sentencing decisions by the sentencing recommendations they make—but prosecutors are insulated from the costs of those sentences, which critics have described as a correctional “free lunch.” In a nationally distributed survey experiment, we show that when a sample of (n=178) professional prosecutors were insulated from sentencing cost information, their prison sentence recommendations were nearly one-third lengthier than sentences rendered following exposure to direct cost information. Exposure to a fiscally equivalent benefit of incarceration did not impact sentencing recommendations, as predicted. This pattern suggests that prosecutors implicitly value incorporating sentencing costs but selectively neglect them unless they are made explicit. These findings highlight a likely but previously unrecognized contributor to mass incarceration and identify a potential way to remediate it.
format	article
author	Eyal Aharoni Eyal Aharoni Eyal Aharoni Heather M. Kleider-Offutt Heather M. Kleider-Offutt Sarah F. Brosnan Sarah F. Brosnan Sarah F. Brosnan Sarah F. Brosnan
author_facet	Eyal Aharoni Eyal Aharoni Eyal Aharoni Heather M. Kleider-Offutt Heather M. Kleider-Offutt Sarah F. Brosnan Sarah F. Brosnan Sarah F. Brosnan Sarah F. Brosnan
author_sort	Eyal Aharoni
title	Correctional “Free Lunch”? Cost Neglect Increases Punishment in Prosecutors
title_short	Correctional “Free Lunch”? Cost Neglect Increases Punishment in Prosecutors
title_full	Correctional “Free Lunch”? Cost Neglect Increases Punishment in Prosecutors
title_fullStr	Correctional “Free Lunch”? Cost Neglect Increases Punishment in Prosecutors
title_full_unstemmed	Correctional “Free Lunch”? Cost Neglect Increases Punishment in Prosecutors
title_sort	correctional “free lunch”? cost neglect increases punishment in prosecutors
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/f4e467e83003478592a66231426513a5
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Correctional “Free Lunch”? Cost Neglect Increases Punishment in Prosecutors

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