Plea Decision-making: the Influence of Attorney Expertise, Trustworthiness, and Recommendation

Authors

Kelsey S. Henderson, Portland State UniversityFollow
Reveka Shteynberg, California State University - San Bernardino

Sponsor

This study was supported by a Hatfield Public Service grant (Portland State University). Selected findings were presented at the 2018 American Society of Criminology annual conference (Atlanta, GA).

Published In

Psychology, Crime & Law

Document Type

Pre-Print

Publication Date

11-1-2019

Subjects

Plea bargaining -- United States, Plea bargaining -- Social aspects -- United States, Crime -- United States -- Social aspects, Criminal defense lawyers -- Decision making

Abstract

Attorney recommendations influence defendant plea decisions; and the degree of influence likely rests on the perceived trustworthiness and level of expertise of the attorney (factors of source credibility). We explored attorney source credibility factors and how these characteristics influence defendants’ plea decision-making. MTurk participants read a hypothetical plea scenario and were asked to imagine themselves as the defendant in a DWI/DUI case making a plea decision; in the scenario, we manipulated the defense attorney’s level of trustworthiness, expertise, and plea recommendation. There was a significant interaction between attorney recommendation and trustworthiness on defendants’ plea decisions; participants who were advised to accept the guilty plea were more likely to plead guilty when the attorney was high in trustworthiness compared to low in trustworthiness. Attorney trustworthiness did not affect plea decisions for defendants advised to reject the guilty plea. Importantly, attorney trustworthiness affected defendants’ decision to follow the attorney’s recommendation and ultimate plea decision (regardless of expertise), and attorney expertise affected defendants’ confidence in their decision (regardless of trustworthiness). Results suggest individual-level characteristics of defense attorneys affect the influence of the attorney and their recommendation, and ultimately defendants’ plea decision-making.

Rights

© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

PRE-PRINT. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the journal; Final version:

http://doi.org/10.1080/1068316X.2019.1696801

Locate the Document

http://doi.org/10.1080/1068316X.2019.1696801

DOI

10.1080/1068316X.2019.1696801

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/30935

Citation Details

PREPRINT Henderson, K. S., & Shteynberg, R. V. (2019). Plea decision-making: the influence of attorney expertise, trustworthiness, and recommendation. Psychology, Crime & Law, 1-25.