Consideration of Alternative Decisionmaking Models

Abstract

In each court, descriptive research and group discussions led to the next, more difficult step of trying to devise decision guidelines helpful in establishing an overall policy and as a day-to-day decisionmaking tool. Defining the task in general terms was straightforward: The goal was to devise a decisionmaking aid that would incorporate the particular court’s policy aims, that would bring together key pieces of information relating to defendants and to their cases, and that would point to preferred decisions for usual kinds of cases. Arriving at a specific product for each of the three court systems, however, meant addressing a number of important policy and practical questions.