University Campus Members' Perceptions and Willingness to Accept Plea Deals

Previous research on plea bargaining has primarily focused on public opinion about this practice and the disparities among individuals who have accepted a plea deal. This body of research usually addressed only legal or extralegal factors associated with the prevalence of plea bargaining. Few studies have explored the impact of both factors on an individual’s attitude toward plea bargaining and willingness to accept a plea deal. The current study sought to address this gap in the literature by exploring situational and dispositional factors and other relevant measures, such as court procedural justice, to examine their influence on a person’s attitude toward plea bargaining and willingness to accept a hypothetical plea deal. Data were gathered through an online survey employing self-reported measures from a sample of individuals at a Western university (n = 213). Statistical analyses were conducted to identify significant group differences, associations between variables, and regression coefficients related to the willingness to accept a plea deal or attitudes toward plea bargaining. Results from linear regression indicate that gender and political affiliation predict attitudes toward plea bargaining. Results from zero-inflated Poisson regression revealed that situational and dispositional factors, social media consumption, and political affiliation predicted an individual’s willingness to accept a plea deal. The findings from this study can be utilized to enhance educational approaches regarding plea bargaining as a practice for the general public and courtroom actors as target audiences.