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... courts because they save valuable time and money. For example, in a contested trail at the Crown Court the hearing usually takes about 10 hours, whereas it only takes approximately one hour if the plea is guilty. Research from the Home Office has shown that the cost at a Crown Court for a contested trial is around £12,088, in contrast to just £1,400 for a case with a guilty plea. (Sanders and Young, 2000). According to the rational choice theory, how a defendant pleads is dependant on two factors; how likely it is that they will be convicted, and the difference in penalty for a guilty plea and a not guilty plea. A study by Hedderman and Moxan (1992) supports this theory. They interviewed 282 defendants who had been convicted in Crown Court. They stated that a defendant's choice to plead guilty was heavily based on the likelihood of ...