 This analysis only considers the costs of mistaken decisions, but leaves out the benefits associated with correct decisions. More comprehensive analyses would consider both (Lillquist 2002; Laudan and Saunders 2009), but the basic insight would remain the same. Trial decision-making is viewed as one instrument among others for maximizing overall social welfare (Posner 1973). On this account of proof standards, the stringency of the threshold depends on costs and benefits, and thus different cases may require different thresholds. Cases in which the charge is more serious than others—say, murder compared to petty theft—may require higher thresholds so long as the cost of a mistaken decision against the defendant is more significant. Whether or not standards of proof should vary in this way is debated (Kaplow 2012; Picinali 2013; see also the entry on  the legal concept of evidence).