March 9, 2006

Former political science chair Casper dies at 63

Jonathan Casper, 63, an innovator in research on law and society who pushed the boundaries of traditional methods and topics of inquiry, died March 3 in Evanston.

Casper was a former chair and professor of political science, faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research and associate dean in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and senior research fellow at the American Bar Foundation.

He broke with tradition in political science by changing how people looked at courts, focusing on the informal processes in trial courts that have such a strong influence on outcomes. Then again he broke ground in his interdisciplinary work by exploring what psychological theories had to say about decision making in the criminal and civil justice systems.

He initiated the first empirical studies of the less visible plea-bargaining process that dominates the American criminal justice system. Focusing his attention on defendants, he ultimately interviewed 600 defendants in three states shortly after their arrest and then again after the disposition of their case. He discovered, to his surprise, that defendants who pleaded guilty expressed higher levels of satisfaction than those who had trials — regardless of outcome, eventually explaining this finding by applying theories of procedural justice to the trial process.

He is the author or co-author of five books and more than two dozen articles.

In 1985, Casper joined the political science department and its Institute for Policy Research and became a senior research fellow at the American Bar Foundation. He served two terms as chair of political science, from 1988 to 1991 and from 1994 to 1997. He was associate dean in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences from September 1998 to August 2000.

Before moving to Northwestern, Casper was on the faculty of Yale University, Stanford University and the University of Illinois and was a Guggenheim fellow from 1975 to 1976. He received his bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College in 1964 and his doctorate in political science from Yale in 1968.

Casper is survived by his daughter, Sarah; his former wife, Kennette Benedict; his brother Barry Michael Casper and his wife, Nancy Casper; and his nephews Daniel, Benjamin and Michael Casper.

A memorial service will be scheduled at a later date. (Donations may be made to the Greater Chicago Food Depository or Mather Life Ways.)