The Plea Bargaining Process from the Defendant’s Perspective: A Field Investigation

This article presents a study on plea bargaining from the defendant’s perspective. The subjects included individuals who had been charged with a felony and pleaded guilty. This study found seven significant factors related to plea-bargaining, all of which were unified by the defendant’s pressure to plead. The study focused on whether these factors could reliably predict the reason for accepting a plea, the firmness in the decision to accept, and the satisfaction with that plea.

“The results from the discriminant analysis indicate that three factors separated subjects according to reason for acceptance. There were those subjects who accepted the plea bargain primarily to minimize suffering, whereas others accepted for reasons other than minimization of suffering. The results of the analysis showed that the Pressure from the Prosecutor, Acquiescence and Guilt factors significantly predicted category membership.” p. 104