Discuss the various legal and extralegal factors affecting judicial bail decisions. Include a review of matching heuristic in your discussion.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers may vary.Bail decisions are influenced by both legal and extralegal factors. Legal factors are related to the offense or the offender's legal history; research has shown that bail is likely to be denied or set very high when the offense was serious and when the offender has prior convictions. Even perceptions of crime seriousness matter: In one study, judges imposed higher bail on those charged with sexual offenses than on those charged with nonsexual offenses at the same statutory offense level. Since there is not strong, consistent evidence that defendants charged with sexual offenses are at higher risk to reoffend, they may be particularly disadvantaged in the bail-setting context. This suggests that judges may be considering even the legally relevant factor of crime seriousness in an unsystematic, stereotype-influenced way.Because laws relevant to bail decisions are ill defined and there is little public scrutiny of this step in the criminal process, extralegal factors such as offenders' race and gender can affect judges' decisions as well. There is evidence that this occurs. For example, in cases prosecuted by the New York County District Attorney in 2010-2011, judges detained a higher percentage of Black felony defendants (61%) than Latinos (56%), Whites (43%), or Asians (28%).After controlling for charge seriousness and prior record, Blacks were still 10% more likely to be detained than Whites. Even if race per se does not influence bail-setting, factors correlated with race, such as a defendant's perceived probability of re-arrest, may guide judges' decisions. In other words, racial and gender disparities emerge because judges regard Black defendants as more likely to be re-arrested than Whites, and female defendants as less likely to be re-arrested than males.Psychologists have assessed the cognitive processes that judges use in determining whether bail should be allowed. In some studies, judges respond to simulated cases presented as vignettes. In other studies, researchers observe judges dealing with real cases in the courtroom. In both settings, judges tend to use a mental shortcut called the matching heuristic: They search through a subset of available case information and then make a decision on the basis of only a small number of factors (e.g., offense severity and prior record), often ignoring other seemingly relevant information. This is not especially surprising; judges' large caseloads force them to make fast decisions, and people often use shortcut reasoning strategies when forced to think quickly.