Daily routines and courtroom workgroup encounters in the City of Buenos Aires’ lower criminal courts: the case of plea bargaining (2019-2023).

• In Event: Prosecution in the Making III: Prosecutors as Court Actors

Abstract

The paper deals with the disposition of sentences without trial in the City of Buenos Aires criminal justice system by analyzing the daily routines of judicial actors and their negotiation mechanisms between 2019 and 2023. A total of 29 in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with judges, prosecutors, and public defenders. Our findings suggest that plea bargaining is the central mechanism by which convictions are disposed of in the Buenos Aires criminal justice system. However, these negotiation mechanisms are not limited to this; it is also possible to find them in many of the alternatives offered as outcomes of the criminal justice system. Thus, diversion programs emerge as the main case resolution form after broad agreements between prosecutors and public defenders. Finally, we find that the penalties imposed in abbreviated trials are the minimum possible, contrary to the hardening of criminal legislation in recent years.

Author

• Mariano Sicardi, National University of José C. Paz / University of Buenos Aires