Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Law
Charge Movement And Theories Of Prosecutors, Ronald F. Wright, Rodney L. Engen
Charge Movement And Theories Of Prosecutors, Ronald F. Wright, Rodney L. Engen
Ronald F. Wright
The charges filed at the start of a criminal case often move down to less serious charges that form the basis for a guilty plea and conviction. In this symposium essay, we build on our earlier work on charge movement based on data from North Carolina. After noting that charges move at different rates for different crimes, we explain the differences among crimes by looking to the structure of the substantive criminal law. Groups of crimes that offer deeper options to the negotiators (such as the many versions of assault) produce more frequent charge movement.
Assuming that the structure of …