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Aharoni E, Nahmias E, Hoffman MB, Fernandes S. Punishment as a scarce resource: a potential policy intervention for managing incarceration rates. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1157460. [PMID: 37213354 PMCID: PMC10196492 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1157460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2023] [Accepted: 04/11/2023] [Indexed: 05/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Scholars have proposed that incarceration rates might be reduced by a requirement that judges justify incarceration decisions with respect to their operational costs (e.g., prison capacity). In an Internet-based vignette experiment (N = 214), we tested this prediction by examining whether criminal punishment judgments (prison vs. probation) among university undergraduates would be influenced by a prompt to provide a justification for one's judgment, and by a brief message describing prison capacity costs. We found that (1) the justification prompt alone was sufficient to reduce incarceration rates, (2) the prison capacity message also independently reduced incarceration rates, and (3) incarceration rates were most strongly reduced (by about 25%) when decision makers were asked to justify their sentences with respect to the expected capacity costs. These effects survived a test of robustness and occurred regardless of whether participants reported that prison costs should influence judgments of incarceration. At the individual crime level, the least serious crimes were most amenable to reconsideration for probation. These findings are important for policymakers attempting to manage high incarceration rates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eyal Aharoni
- Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, United States
- *Correspondence: Eyal Aharoni
| | - Eddy Nahmias
- Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, United States
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Aharoni E, Kleider-Offutt HM, Brosnan SF, Hoffman MB. Nudges for Judges: An Experiment on the Effect of Making Sentencing Costs Explicit. Front Psychol 2022; 13:889933. [PMID: 35712212 PMCID: PMC9197476 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.889933] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2022] [Accepted: 04/29/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eyal Aharoni
- Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, United States
- Department of Philosophy, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, United States
- Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, United States
- *Correspondence: Eyal Aharoni,
| | - Heather M. Kleider-Offutt
- Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, United States
- Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, United States
| | - Sarah F. Brosnan
- Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, United States
- Department of Philosophy, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, United States
- Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, United States
- Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, Atlanta, GA, United States
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