Remorse and sentencing in a world of plea bargaining
Gormley, Jay and Tata, Cyrus; Tudor, Steve and Weisman, Richard and Proeve, Michael and Rossmanith, Kate, eds. (2021) Remorse and sentencing in a world of plea bargaining. In: Remorse and Criminal Justice : Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives. Routledge, London, pp. 40-66. ISBN 9780367028763 (https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429001062-4)
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Abstract
That the presence or absence of remorse is felt to be central to sentencing decision-making is now well established. Most scholarship has focused on normative questions of whether and how remorse ought to influence sentencing decisions. More recently, research is exposing the difficulties and dangers faced by judicial sentencers seeking to evaluate the authenticity of expressions of remorse. Distinctively, this paper asks why, despite its apparent irrationality, judges and lawyers seem compelled to focus on the attitude of the person to be sentenced. Illustrated by recent research into sentencing and guilty pleas, we reveal how a perception of ‘zero-sum gamesmanship’ appears to defendants and judges and lawyers to pervade the daily workings of the courts, most especially in plea bargaining practices. It argues that the inability of these court professionals to know, and confidently to believe they know, the ‘real’ attitude of the defendant is intensified by the very practices court professionals feel obligated to pursue.
ORCID iDs
Gormley, Jay ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5991-7628 and Tata, Cyrus ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1033-478X; Tudor, Steve, Weisman, Richard, Proeve, Michael and Rossmanith, Kate-
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Item type: Book Section ID code: 73961 Dates: DateEvent29 November 2021Published16 September 2020AcceptedSubjects: Law > Law of the United Kingdom and Ireland
Social Sciences > Social pathology. Social and public welfare > Criminal justice administrationDepartment: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) > Strathclyde Law School > Law
Strategic Research Themes > Health and Wellbeing
Strategic Research Themes > Society and PolicyDepositing user: Pure Administrator Date deposited: 24 Sep 2020 10:10 Last modified: 13 Oct 2024 00:20 Related URLs: URI: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/73961