In order to conduct their research they interviewed a total number of 67 males and 62 females who recently had felony charges in their record and agreed to accept a plea bargain. The participants in the study were between the ages of 19 and 48 and were mixed between employed and unemployed. Bordens and Bassett used a questionnaire which was spilt in four sections to conduct their research. The first set of questions were open ended which dealt with why plea bargains were accepted, offers made prior to plea bargains accepted, and why were any refused [Bor851]. During this set of questions the subjects were asked to first write in their personal words, reasons why they accepted a plea bargain and later to state why any of the other plea bargains were refused [Bor851]. The second set of question involved numerous demographic items such as: religion, age, employment status, education, number of children, marital status, previous convictions and plea bargaining experiences, and rather or not the defendant negotiated the plea bargain [Bor851]. Within the third section you could see items that dealt with the extent of the knowledge held by the defendant about recent plea bargains dealing. Along with those questions, individuals were also asked if the defendant did or did not offer the prosecutor anything in trade off for the plea bargain, if the prosecutor agreed to lessen both the number and severity of the charges, and any possible advice offered by the defense attorney [Bor851]. Finally, the last section of the questionnaire involved 14 likely reasons why an individual might accept a plea bargain. These motives involved items dealing with pressure from the prosecutor, acceptance of responsibility for the crime, pragmatic reasons, etc. [Bor851]. After the questionnaire was done, what they found was that seven of the fourteen factors of why people would accept a plea bargain. These seven reasons were: prosecutor pressure, secondary pressure, guilt, sentenced related, feasibility, acquiescence, and likelihood of sentence.
