The Effect of Extralegal Factors in Decision-Making About Juvenile Offenders in Chile: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Abstract

This study seeks to identify the underlying factors related to the sentencing process for juvenile justice cases in Chile. To this end, a factorial survey method or quasi-experimental vignette method was used. This method allows us to understand with greater clarity the complex cognitive process involved in judicial decision-making. The results confirm that legal factors carry the critical weight for judicial decisions, though extralegal factors also play a role. Among these, factors associated with the offender (such as drug use and school attendance) and characteristics of the judges themselves (such as judicial attitudes and their previous experience) all influenced the decision-making process. These findings allow us to provide evidence about decision-making in the Latin American contexts and add to existing evidence in order to understand the moderating effect of certain class and gender stereotypes.

How Ideology Shapes Legal Concepts: The Case of Public Order

“…Even though the judiciary is served well by the idea of the ideology-free and emotionless judge, a fully rational machine straightforwardly exacting justice, it has been criticized by many (e.g., Posner, 2010), with the validity of such criticism often being supported by empirical evidence. Specifically, it appears that rather than a straightforward, machine-like application of the law to a case, legal interpretation is a complex psychological process incorporating previous experience (Carvacho et al, 2023;George & Weaver, 2017), heuristics and biases (e.g., Bystranowski et al, 2021;Rachlinski & Wistrich, 2017), but also the interpreter's political beliefs (Segal & Cover, 1989;Segal & Spaeth, 2002;Songer et al, 2013). Furthermore, it is unnecessary to stop with the judges.…”

Judicial breakfast as an external factor in judicial decision making in courts

“…The theory acknowledges the importance of judges when making decisions in society and the legal indeterminacy. Hutcheson contends that it is difficult to reduce law into logic as judges are not technicians to determine cases mechanically (Carvacho, Droppelmann & Mateo, 2022). However, the judge notes in the court that judicial decision-making cannot be reduced to politics and made an issue of technical reasoning.…”