Legal Institutions and Social Values: Theory and Evidence from Plea Bargaining Regimes

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

How do social values shape legal institutions across countries? To address this question I focus on one important legal institution-the use of plea bargaining in criminal cases. I develop a model in which the optimal scope of plea bargaining depends on social values. Specifically, a lower social emphasis on ensuring that innocent individuals are not punished, and a greater social emphasis on ensuring that guilty individuals are punished, lead to a greater use of plea bargaining. Using unique cross-country data on social preferences for punishing the innocent versus letting the guilty go free, as well as an original coding of plea bargaining regimes across countries, I obtain results that are consistent with the model.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)867-893
Number of pages27
JournalJournal of Empirical Legal Studies
Volume11
Issue number4
StatePublished - 2014

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