The Validity of the Technique of Fictitious Cases

Abstract

This chapter presents a discussion and empirical test of the validity of judges’ responses to fictitious sentencing exercises as a basis for understanding how judges determine appropriate sentences for particular cases. Here, the terms fictitious case and fictitious procedure or technique are used interchangeably. The critical feature is that the judgment is not made as part of a determination as to what is appropriate by way of sentence for an actual case as it is being heard in court. The fictitious procedure sometimes is referred to as simulation in the literature.