The idea of using artificial intelligence as a support system in the sentencing process has attracted increasing attention. For instance, it been suggested that machine learning algorithms may help curbing problems concerning inter-judge disparity. purpose present article is to examine merits this possibility. It argued that, insofar unfairness disparity held reflect retributivist view proporti...

Abstract Repeat offenders receive longer sentences than first in virtually every modern jurisdiction. Such prior-record enhancements are politically popular. Scholars more divided, especially regarding severe enhancements. Retributivists have long disagreed about which enhancements, if any, morally justifiable and on what basis. This article advances the debate, offering lessons for retributivi...

In forensic psychiatry, there is increasing recognition of the importance of culture and ethnicity in the criminal justice process as the population becomes more culturally diverse. However, there has been little consideration of the role of cultural factors in the trial process for criminal defendants, particularly in the sentencing phase of trial. Using a capital murder case study, this artic...

Two experiments investigated the effects of age and health on mock judges' sentencing decisions. The effects of these variables on length of prison sentence were examined in the context of offense severity and prior convictions. Experiment 1 involved a violent crime. Main effects were observed for age, health, offense severity and prior convictions. There was also an age by offense severity int...

Untrustworthy faces incur negative judgments across numerous domains. Existing work in this area has focused on situations in which the target's trustworthiness is relevant to the judgment (e.g., criminal verdicts and economic games). Yet in the present studies, we found that people also overgeneralized trustworthiness in criminal-sentencing decisions when trustworthiness should not be judicial...

Abstract We study spatial variation in criminal sentencing. show the existence of local sentencing practices varying widely even across geographically proximate areas. Using compulsory rotation judges North Carolina, we find that arriving a new court gradually converge toward practices. provide evidence convergence corresponds to process learning about practices, which is accelerated by presenc...

Nowadays the amount of legal texts necessary for the execution of legal tasks is growing rapidly. A well-known problem is the retrieval of the right text at the right moment. A solution to this management problem could be the use of knowledge management (KM). In this paper we claim that as part of KM, the development and application of legal ontologies with the help of a mark-up language like t...

During trial, jurors may experience a variety of emotions, many of which are negative. The current study examined the effects the negative emotions anger, fear, and sadness had on jurors’ sentencing decisions and explored whether Cognitive Appraisal Theory or the Intuitive Prosecutor Model could explain these effects. Jurors viewed the sentencing phase of a capital murder trial and were asked t...

Racial and gender disparities are prevalent in the criminal justice system, but the sources of these disparities remain largely unknown. This paper investigates whether judge political affiliation contributes to these disparities using data on over 500,000 federal defendants linked to sentencing judge. Exploiting random case assignment, we find that Republican appointed judges sentence black de...