Plea Bargaining Practices: Less Covert, more Public Support?

Although a common practice in many legal systems, plea bargaining (PB) tends to be held in low esteem by the public at large. In the present study, which was based on a survey of a national sample of Israeli respondents, a factorial design methodology was used to examine public attitudes toward vari...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Crime and delinquency 2004-10, Vol.50 (4), p.590-614
Main Author: Herzog, Sergio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Crime
Criminal justice
Criminal Law
Criminal pleas
Disclosure
Foreign Countries
Israel
Judicial process
Law Enforcement
Legal systems
Offenders
Plea bargaining
Public opinion
Public Support
Research Design
Social approval
Surveys
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Summary:Although a common practice in many legal systems, plea bargaining (PB) tends to be held in low esteem by the public at large. In the present study, which was based on a survey of a national sample of Israeli respondents, a factorial design methodology was used to examine public attitudes toward varied PB scenarios. It was hypothesized that opening up PB procedures to parties other than the traditionally involved “insiders” would enhance public support for PB. The findings of the study generally confirmed this hypothesis, albeit not completely: The effect of decreased covertness was minimal. This article concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of the findings.
ISSN:0011-1287
1552-387X
DOI:10.1177/0011128703262112