Judicial discretion

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the use of bureaucratic discretion by
juvenile prosecutors and identify various factors influencing discretion in the
implementation of juvenile transfer provision laws in Florida. The study contributes to
the sparse literature on bureaucratic discretion by providing a framework of the factors
influencing discretion. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used in the case
study of Florida. The dissertation embraces the idea of methodological pluralism by
combining the findings of extensive interviews conducted with chief juvenile prosecutors
along with descriptive analyses of archival data garnered from Florida's Department of
Juvenile Justice (DJJ).
This research is important since it provides essential policy information through
the various factors that emerge from the study. The findings of the study provide greater insight into understanding how bureaucrats make decisions and could prove useful in
explaining various policy outcomes resulting from the use of discretion in public
organizations. The findings of the research indicate that the discretion of chief juvenile
prosecutors is influenced by a number of factors, including organizational factors,
external influences, client attributes, and characteristics of the bureaucrat.

This thesis is a study of the empirical significance of sentencing information on jury decision-making. A challenge in conducting jury behavior research is that direct observation of jury deliberation is either illegal or impractical. Thus most studies of jury behavior are conducted using archival analysis and mock jury questionnaires. And while we have some information on the issue of jury instruction complexity on jury decision-making, we know very little about the specific role of sentencing information on jury decision-making. My research combines aspects of the jury decision-making literature with the sentencing literature, and thus fills a crucial gap in the literature. While we know much about jury decision-making and much about the process of sentencing--this research directly tested whether these two phenomena are related. Mock trials of 100 participants were used to collect the data for this thesis study. The results provide clear evidence that there is a significant effect on jury decision-making when the jurors are provided with sentencing information.