엄벌주의 형사사법정책이 재판 결과에 미치는 영향 -공무집행방해범죄를 중심으로

This study aimed to empirically analyze the impact of the punitive policy for obstruction of justice implemented by the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office in March 2014 on the trial outcomes based on the contents of court judgments. Given the hierarchical nature of the data, we used a multi-level generalized linear regression model and found that the policy had a substantial impact on trial outcomes, with statistically significant increases in the likelihood of a formal trial compared to a summary judgment, the likelihood of a prison sentence compared to a fine, and the length of the sentence imposed. We also analyzed whether the outcomes of these individual cases varied by court location and found that courts in non-metropolitan areas tended to sentence more harshly than those in metropolitan areas, regardless of whether the policy was in place, and that the effect of the policy was less pronounced in non-metropolitan areas than in metropolitan areas. These key findings on regional variation in trial outcomes are limited by the fact that only some of them are statistically significant and are subject to a number of limitations, so we look forward to further research to test them more rigorously.