Morality Influences How People Apply the Ignorance of the Law Defense.

In four empirical studies, we showed that laypeople apply the ignorance of the law defense differently depending on the perceived morality of the defendant's course of conduct at the time of the illegal act. Moral and neutral defendants who pled ignorance of the law were afforded leniency, whereas i...

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Bibliographic Details

Published in:	Law & Society Review Vol. 41; no. 4; pp. 819 - 865
Main Authors:	Alter, Adam L., Kernochan, Julia, Darley, John M.
Format:	Article
Published:	Wiley-Blackwell December 2007
Subjects:	Criminal defense Law & ethics Ignorance (Law)
Online Access:	View this record in EBSCOhost