DOES PROSECUTORIAL EXPERIENCE "BALANCE OUT" A JUDGE'S LIBERAL TENDENCIES?

作者：Robinson Rob^*

来源：Justice System Journal, 2011, 32(2): 143-168.

Conclusive evidence of a relationship between background characteristics such as gender, race, or religion and specific judicial decisions has been hard to come by. Studies that find a correlation between prosecutorial experience and increased support for conservative positions have been an exception to this pattern. The presumption that former prosecutors make more-conservative judges permeates media accounts of judicial nominees and may affect judicial selection processes. After examining forty years of criminal cases from the Supreme Court and the U.S. Courts of Appeals, I find no relationship between prosecutorial background and a propensity for favoring conservative outcomes. Judicial ideology remains the better predictor of future judicial behavior in criminal cases.

• 出版日期2011