Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Tunick, Mark

Abstract

The process of plea bargaining in the American legal system has long been criticized for being coercive. I use Robert Nozick’s criteria for coercion to show that plea bargaining is not inherently coercive. However, prosecutors can introduce coercion into the process, and the possibility of uneven introduction of coercion in offering pleas makes the system of plea bargaining unfair. However, that plea bargaining can be unfair and often coercive does not mean that it must be abolished. Although the current state of plea bargaining is not ideal and does result in unfairness for many, there does not seem to be any viable options to radically reform the process at this time without losing efficiency, though standardizing some plea offers while leaving the discretion of whether to offer pleas to the prosecution could help remove some of the coerciveness and unfairness

Comments

Includes bibliography.

Extent

52 p.

Identifier

FA00003587

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