LAW

An offender's reduced sentence on plead guilty (early in the process of being accused)

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An offender's reduced sentence on plead guilty (early in the process of being accused)



Introduction

In the United Kingdom, defendants plead guilty in 90 percent or more of criminal cases. In most such cases, defendants are treated leniently in exchange for pleading guilty—a practice known as plea bargaining, which may involve altering charges or reducing sentences. This process may be explicit or implicit. Charge bargaining is a form of plea bargaining, in which the prosecutor agrees either to reduce the charges—for example, by changing the charge from murder to manslaughter—or drop one or more of the charges against the defendant. Sentence bargaining occurs where the prosecutor offers to recommend that the judge impose a more lenient sentence. Explicit plea bargaining occurs when charges are altered or sentences reduced based on an explicit agreement between the prosecution and defence. Implicit plea bargaining, however, involves no such agreement—and thus no actual bargaining. Instead, defendants plead guilty with the understanding that they will be treated more leniently.

Plea bargaining, then, is not a unitary phenomenon. It includes a variety of different practices, but what they all have in common is that defendants who plead guilty ultimately receive lighter punishments than those who go to trial. Though widespread in the United Kingdom, plea bargaining has been controversial. Defenders argue that the practice allows the criminal justice system to process cases efficiently and allows the prosecution and defence to work out mutually beneficial agreements. But since the prevalence of plea bargaining means that trials are rarely used to resolve cases, critics argue that the practice undermines the presumption of innocence and other ideals on which the adversarial trial system is based (Brereton, 1981: 34-57).

The Development and Spread of Plea Bargaining

Plea bargaining of any kind was unknown in the United Kingdom or elsewhere prior to the 19th century. By the late 19th century, however, plea bargaining was common (but not dominant) throughout the United Kingdom. At this time, there was a mixed system with frequent (but short) trials, explicit charge bargaining, and implicit plea bargaining. By the early 20th century, most cases were handled with guilty pleas (apparently as a result of implicit bargaining), and by the late 20th century, trials had become extremely infrequent, and explicit plea bargaining had become the most common way of handling cases (Brereton, 1981: 34-57).

Historians have offered several explanations for these changes. Some see the rise of plea bargaining as the result of greater professionalization in the criminal justice system. With professional prosecutors and defence attorneys taking a leading role in the process, pre-trial proceedings became more important than trials for establishing evidence of guilt. The trial as an amateur fact-finding process thus became less necessary, and in most cases, it benefited neither party to take the case to trial. Others have argued that growing caseloads prompted the need for a more efficient way of handling cases, or alternatively, that the expansion of due-process rights ...