The Role of Victim-Related Factors in Victim Restitution: A Multi-Method Analysis of Restitution in Pennsylvania
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- 作者：R. Barry Ruback and Jennifer N. Shaffer
- 关键词：victims ; restitution ; sentencing ; contextual factors ; statutory implementation
- 刊名：Law and Human Behavior
- 出版时间：December 2005
- 出版年：2005
- 期刊代码：25_01477307
- 类别：en
- 卷：29
- 期：6
- 页码：657-681
- 数据来源：sp
摘要
Mandatory statutes do not always produce change, but a 1995 Pennsylvania statutory change making restitution mandatory dramatically increased the proportion of cases in which restitution was imposed. There are three possible reasons for this generally successful implementation: (a) judges agreed with the victim-centered goals of the statute, (b) there were mechanisms in place to implement the goals of assisting victims, and (c) there was a context supportive of victims that made it easier to follow the law. Two studies investigated these possible explanations. First, a statewide survey of trial court judges suggested that they agreed with the statute's goals of compensating victims. Second, hierarchical logistic models of 55,119 statewide restitution-eligible decisions indicated that a victim-related contextual factor, the nature and location of the victim/witness assistance office, was significantly related to the imposition of restitution, although a more general contextual factor relating to funding for victim programs had only small effects.