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DECISION‐MAKING IN THE CRIMINAL COURTS:
Author(s) -
KINGSNORTH RODNEY,
RIZZO LOUIS
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
criminology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.467
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1745-9125
pISSN - 0011-1384
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1979.tb01271.x
Subject(s) - plea , sentence , criminal justice , autonomy , economic justice , political science , law , criminology , law and economics , sociology , psychology , philosophy , linguistics
This article attempts an analysis of the relationship between the guilty‐plea bargaining process and presentence investigation reports. It is argued that because plea‐bargaining has increasingly come to involve bargaining over sentence. probation officers, as a consequence, have increasingly come to experience encroachment upon their decision‐making autonomy. In this predicament they have found little support from judges, who, committed to norms of managerial efficiency will reassert the primacy of the plea‐bargain when probation officers refuse to ratify previously negotiated sentence agreements. The policy implications of this for the criminal justice system are discussed.