Before being presented with the actual statistics, college students and community residents grossly overestimate the extent to which the insanity plea is used and its success rate. They also overwhelmingly believe that the plea is overused and abused. Following presentation of the actual use and success data, a significant alteration in a more favorable direction is observed. However, despite this shift in opinion, a substantial proportion of respondents still opine that the plea is overused and abused.
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Jeffrey et al. (1983) studied this question.
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