Bargained Justice: The History and Psychology of Plea Bargaining and the Trial Penalty

Dervan discusses the history and psychology of plea bargaining and the trial penalty. Plea bargaining is a force that has come to dominate the American criminal justice system. Today, almost 98 percent of criminal convictions in the federal system and 94 percent of criminal convictions in the state systems result from a plea of guilty. Despite the existence of strong English common law traditions regarding the voluntariness of confessions and the presence of recent American appellate court rejections of early bargains, plea bargaining continued to grow in the shadows as the nation entered the twentieth century. Fortunately, as Japan and South Korea consider their paths forward, they are cognizant of the concerns regarding plea bargaining being expressed in the US and are working to ensure that any systems adopted account for all that has been learned in the law and psychology community in recent years.