NCJ Number
82488
Date Published
1980
Length
613 pages
Annotation
Plea bargaining in three California counties is examined, followed by a brief history of plea bargaining and the public policy response, participants' evaluation of plea bargaining, and a discussion of whether plea bargaining conflicts with the goals of California's criminal justice system.
Abstract
The counties involved in the study were a large urban county, a large metropolitan county with a significant suburban population, and a medium-sized county with one major urban center. The data collection was designed to gain opinions about plea bargaining from persons directly and indirectly involved in the process within each jurisdiction and to document the processes and consequences of plea bargaining from a sample of criminal cases in each jurisdiction. As has been historically true, elsewhere, plea bargaining as practiced in California conflicts with basic principles of justice, individual rights, and due process. Further, it contradicts the recently enacted legislative goals for crime control, fairness, and public confidence. Despite this fundamental conflict, plea bargaining has flourished in the State because of the perceived mutual benefits to participants in the system, the expectation of increased costs and system collapse without plea bargaining, and the lack of public visibility of the system. The major public policy issue raised by these findings is the appropriateness of using plea bargaining as the primary mechanism for bringing flexibility to the criminal justice system. Tabular data are provided, and the appendixes detail the study method and instruments. (Author summary modified)