University of Cambridge, Institute of Criminology, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 9DA, United Kingdom.
J Soc Psychol. 2010 Jan-Feb;150(1):77-97. doi: 10.1080/00224540903365315.
Two experiments investigated the effects of age and health on mock judges' sentencing decisions. The effects of these variables on length of prison sentence were examined in the context of offense severity and prior convictions. Experiment 1 involved a violent crime. Main effects were observed for age, health, offense severity and prior convictions. There was also an age by offense severity interaction. Experiment 2 involved a child sexual abuse case. Main effects were observed for health, offense severity, and prior convictions. In addition, an age by offense severity by prior convictions interaction effect was found. Thus, across both experiments, the age leniency effect was moderated by legal factors, suggesting that extra-legal factors affect sentencing in the context of legal factors. Further, for both offenses, offenders in poor health received shorter sentences than offenders in good health, suggesting that health deserves further research attention as an extra-legal variable.
两个实验调查了年龄和健康状况对模拟法官量刑决策的影响。在犯罪严重程度和前科的背景下，研究了这些变量对监禁刑期长短的影响。实验 1 涉及暴力犯罪。观察到年龄、健康、犯罪严重程度和前科有主要影响。此外，还观察到年龄与犯罪严重程度的交互作用。实验 2 涉及儿童性虐待案件。观察到健康、犯罪严重程度和前科有主要影响。此外，还发现了年龄与犯罪严重程度与前科的交互作用效应。因此，在两个实验中，年龄从宽效应都受到法律因素的调节，这表明非法律因素会影响法律因素背景下的量刑。此外，对于两种犯罪，健康状况不佳的罪犯比健康状况良好的罪犯被判的刑期更短，这表明健康状况作为一个非法律因素值得进一步研究。
