Is Pleading Really a Bargain?

Authors

David S. Abrams, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law SchoolFollow

ORCID

David Abrams 0000-0001-8485-6241

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2011

Abstract

A criminal defendant's decision of whether to accept a plea bargain is one with serious consequences both for his or her immediate and long‐term future. Conventional wisdom suggests that defendants are better served by entering into a plea bargain, to avoid what is known as the “trial penalty.” In this article I present evidence that this notion is likely mistaken. In OLS regressions using data from Cook County state courts, I find that a risk‐neutral defendant seeking to minimize his or her expected sentence would do substantially better by rejecting a plea bargain. I also employ an IV approach to the question and, while the instrument is weak, the results are consistent with the OLS: defendants are better off going to trial.

Publication Title

Journal of Empirical Legal Studies

Publication Citation

8 J. Empirical Legal Stud. 200 (2011)

Repository Citation

Abrams, David S., "Is Pleading Really a Bargain?" (2011). All Faculty Scholarship. 2269.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-1461.2011.01234.x