Who Deserves a Second Chance? Prosecutorial Discretion and the Politics of Deservingness

• In Event: Patronage, Power and Autonomy in Bureaucratic Politics

Brief Overview

We survey prosecutors to determine the importance of different criteria when determining an individual’s participation in a pre-trial diversion program. Based on this we argue prosecutorial discretion is a mechanism of democratic boundary-making.

Authors

• Mara Cecilia Ostfeld, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

• Brandon J Romero, University of Michigan

• Chelsea Waddell, University of Michigan

• Charlotte Boucher, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor