The Social and Cognitive Structure of Legal Decision-Making
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2276571 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ronald A Farrell (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), M D Holmes (0000-0002-0352-3371, University of Wyoming) |
| Year | 1991 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 529-542 |
| Publication date | 1991-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociological Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0038-0253 • E-ISSN: 1533-8525 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1533-8525.1991.tb00152.x |
| OpenAlex | W2125747574 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 51 |
| References cited | 71 |
This conceptual article uses an interpretive approach to legal decision-making to explain the operation of crime stereotypes in the courts. A model is proposed to address the social psychological dynamics involved in assessing both conforming and exceptional cases. Evaluated against the backdrop of prevailing stereotypes, conforming cases may be disposed of routinely, while exceptional cases present cognitive dilemmas for court actors. In that stereotypes are internalized as enduring mental structures, the latters' dispositions require a more probing search for an explanation of the crime than is necessary with more typical offenses. Legal decisions in exceptional cases are influenced by the meaning court actors attribute to the offense within the context of the offender's alternative (i.e., noncriminal) social statuses. A series of interrelated propositions based on these arguments is formulated
Cognition · Context (archaeology) · Criminology · Epistemology · Meaning (existential) · Political science · Sociology · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Law · Psychology · Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending · Social Psychology · Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses
The Use and Transformation of Formal Decision-Making Criteria
The Impact of Gender and Race-Ethnicity in the Pretrial Release Process
Modeling “Remorse Bias” in probation narratives
Does Gender Modify the Effects of Race–ethnicity on Criminal Sanctioning? Sentences for Male and Female White, Black, and Hispanic Defendants
A Multilevel Analysis of Community Effects on Criminal Sentencing
The Independent and Joint Effects of Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Age on Sentencing Outcomes in U.S. Federal Courts
Sentencing disparity and departures from guidelines
The War on Drugs in Juvenile Court? The Influence of Community Context on Juvenile Court Outcomes for White, Black, and Hispanic Youth
Words matter
How do Racial and Ethnic Disparities Emerge in the Use of Restrictive Housing for Prison Rule Violations
A Quantitative Analysis on the Sentencing Disparity in Online Romance Scam Cases in United States
Sentencing Disparity and Focal Concern
Trial Penalties under Florida’s Sentencing Guidelines
Race, Ethnicity, Crime Type, and the Sentencing of Violent Felony Offenders
Racial Disparity Under Sentencing Guidelines
Neighborhood context and racial/ethnic disparities in judicial processing
Race, Gender, and Outcomes in First Degree Murder Cases
The Organizational Context of Criminal Sentencing
Measuring Risk and Blameworthiness in the Sentencing of Criminal Defendants
Recent Developments and New Directions in Sentencing Research
Judicial “remorse bias” and the effects of social cognition on the sentencing of stereotyped defendants
Examining Mental Health Court Completion
Age, Racial/Ethnic Minority Status, Gender and Misdemeanor Sentencing
The Influence of Defendant Race/Ethnicity and Police Body-Worn Cameras on Traffic Case Processing
Have Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Sentencing Declined
Driving racial profiling research forward
The impact of race on the investigation of excessive force allegations against police
Correctional shorthands
The prosecutor gender gap in Texas death penalty cases
Ethnicity Effects on Sentence Outcomes in Large Urban Courts
The Interaction of Race, Gender, and Age in Criminal Sentencing
Judges' Unequal Contributions to Extralegal Disparities in Imprisonment
How Judges Think About Racial Disparities
Images of Danger and Culpability
Racial and Ethnic Differences in Pretrial Release Decisions and Outcomes
Punishing the “Model Minority”
The Social Context of Guidelines Circumvention
Court Communities Under Sentencing Guidelines
Bilevel Disparities in Court Dispositions for Intimate Assault
Myth, allegiances, and the study of social control
Does Racial Bias Explain the Black-White Sentencing Gap across U.S. Courts
Social control of the self’ and pleading guilty in criminal court
Misdemeanor Sentencing Decisions
Short-Term Effects of Sanctioning Reform on Parole Officers' Revocation Decisions
Punishment within Prison
Race, Juvenile Transfer, and Sentencing Preferences
Trial Judges in a Rural Court Community
Intersectionality of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Age on Criminal Punishment
Do Moral Communities Play A Role In Criminal Sentencing? Evidence from Pennsylvania
Just Another Crime? Examining Disparity in Homicide Sentencing
The Organization and Consequences of Social Pasts in Criminal Courts
Felony justice
A Cognitive -Attributional Analysis of Stereotyping1
Advances In Experimental Social Psychology
Inside Plea Bargaining
Person memory
An American Dilemma
Recent Research on Selective Exposure to Information
The Subculture of Violence
Research Note on Inter- and Intra-Racial Homicides
The Life Cycle of Dictatorship as Seen in Treatment of Religious Institutions
The "Normal" Victim
Defendant Attributes in Plea Bargaining
A Note on the Uses of Official Statistics
The Negro and Crime
Stereotypes and Dispositions for Criminal Homicide
Race, Ethnicity, and Determinate Sentencing
Citizen Crime Stereotypes—normative Consensus Revisited
Feminist Theory, Crime, and Justice
Women, Crime, and Dependency an Application of the Theory of Law
Processing time and the recall of inconsistent and consistent behaviors of individuals and groups
Probation officers' schemata of offenders
Perseverance of social theories
Stereotypic biases in social decision making and memory
Beautiful but dangerous
Social stereotypes and information-processing strategies
Trial Courts as Organizations
Changing Conceptions of Race
Normal Homicides and the Law
Sentencing the White-Collar Offender
Racial Discrimination in Criminal Sentencing
Determinants of Juvenile Court Dispositions
Societal Reaction to Deviants
Race and Involvement in Common Law Personal Crimes
Holistic Effects in Social Control Decision-Making
The Sex-Sanctioning Issue
The Effect of Sexual Stratification By Race on Official Reactions to Rape
The Structure of Discourse in Misdemeanor Plea Bargaining
Extra-Legal Attributes and Criminal Sentencing
Presidential Address
Stereotyping
Criminal Courts Revisited
The Impact of Victim Assessment on Prosecutors' Screening Decisions
Charge Reduction
Accounting for Pre-Sentencing Recommendations
Accounts, Attitudes, and Solutions
Direct and Organizational Discrimination in the Sentencing of Drug Offenders
Private and Public Trouble
Extra-Legal Factors in Chicago's Criminal Courts
Factors Affecting Postarrest Dispositions
Normal Crimes
Conducting Presentencing Investigations
On a General Model for Social and Cognitive Consistency
Racial Differences in Criminal Processing
The Effects of Gender on Charge Reduction
The Role of Probation Officers in Determining Gender Differences in Sentencing Severity
Legal Disposition of Inter-Group and Intra-Group Homicides
Extralegal Factors in Felony Sentencing
Linear Models of Consistency
Separate justice
| Unique citing works | 51 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,59 |
| Citation span | 1994 - 2026 (33) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 48 |