Book contents
- The Timing of Guilty Pleas
- The Timing of Guilty Pleas
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Table of Cases
- Table of Legislation
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Sliding Scale of Sentence Discounts
- 3 Implicit (and Explicit) Plea Bargaining
- 4 Revisiting the Assumptions and Methodology
- 5 Factors Affecting the Timing of Guilty Pleas
- 6 Trial and Late-Plea Penalties
- 7 Consistency in Applying Sentence Discounts
- 8 Public Opinion and Sentence Discounts
- 9 Conclusion
- Index
6 - Trial and Late-Plea Penalties
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 December 2022
- The Timing of Guilty Pleas
- The Timing of Guilty Pleas
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Table of Cases
- Table of Legislation
- Abbreviations
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Sliding Scale of Sentence Discounts
- 3 Implicit (and Explicit) Plea Bargaining
- 4 Revisiting the Assumptions and Methodology
- 5 Factors Affecting the Timing of Guilty Pleas
- 6 Trial and Late-Plea Penalties
- 7 Consistency in Applying Sentence Discounts
- 8 Public Opinion and Sentence Discounts
- 9 Conclusion
- Index
Summary
Existing literature points to guilty pleas leading to plea-trial disparity in sentences, with scholars referring to this as a ‘trial penalty’ or a ‘trial/jury tax’, while courts and policymakers use the terms ‘sentence discounts’ or ‘sentence reductions’. This chapter argues that plea trial and plea-timing disparities have negative consequences for the justice system, as well as that the sentence disparity should be conceptualised as a trial and late-plea penalty. Using the datasets from the Crown Court Sentencing Survey (CCSS) and the Hong Kong District Court compiled for this study, this chapter investigates the effects that the timing of guilty pleas may have on sentence outcomes. Interestingly, a late-plea penalty was found for England and Wales, whereas only a trial penalty was found for Hong Kong. The chapter concludes by discussing the implications of these results.
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- The Timing of Guilty PleasLessons from Common Law Jurisdictions, pp. 120 - 147Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023