Taming the System

Since the American Bar Foundation Survey of the Administration of Criminal Justice (1953 - 1969) discovered the phenomenon of discretion in criminal justice it has become something of a truism that the administration of criminal justice in the United States consists of a series of discretionary decisions by officials in regard to police discretion bail plea bargaining and sentencing. This book is a history of the attempts over the past forty years to control these discretionary powers in the criminal justice system. Walker brings together an enormous literature in a synthesis that will be of great value to professionals reformers and students of the criminal justice system. In a field which largely produces short-ranged evaluation research this study in taking a wider approach distinguishes between the role of the courts and the role of administrative bodies (the police) and evaluates the longer-term trends and the successful reforms in criminal justice history.