Plea Bargaining: Historical Roots of the Normalization of Guilt

• In Event: 1567 - Section on Sociology of Law Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 4: Punishment

Abstract

This article examines the socio-historical origins of plea bargaining. Today plea bargaining operates in toxic combination with recent, mostly mandatory, sentencing practices to contribute to the rise of mass incarceration in a fundamental misreading of the common law. By probing competing accounts of the causes of plea bargaining, this work enables us to see how this controversial practice arose—something little understood until now. It lays the groundwork for a debate about how it might be sustained per Laffler and Missouri v Frye as a formal core of criminal process or adapted in light of the recent innovative Booker decision to allow a more significant role for the jury again.

Author

• Mary E. Vogel, University of Manchester