Defendants previous history and mock sentencing

Six hundred forty-four undergraduates served as mock judges in sentencing male or female defendants convicted of homicide, child molestation, embezzlement, fraudulent issuance of checks, heroin possession, and consensual homosexuality. Defendants had a reported history of psychiatric hospitalization, imprisonment, or neither hospitalization nor incarceration. Results indicated: (1) those defendants with a mental health history were more likely to be accorded a disposition that involved mandatory health treatment; (2) dispositions of persons with a mental health history tended to be more restrictive than those of defendants with neither a mental health nor criminal history; and (3) sex of defendant of mock judge influenced sentencing disposition only in child molestation cases.