Coercion to Compromise

"A magnificent achievement. Coercion to Compromise is a comprehensive, yet subtle and theoretically rich history of the origins of plea bargaining in the nineteenth-century Massachusetts courts. An important book, [it] will reward its readers tenfold."--Susan Silbey, author of The Common Place of Law "Plea bargaining has long been a controversial practice, symbolizing either unwarranted leniency for offenders and the deliberate subversion of formal legal authority, or an emphasis on efficiency at the expense of justice. Mary Vogel explores its distinctively American origins in the context of social and political change in early nineteenth-century America in a book which raises the analysis of the criminal process to a new level of theoretical sophistication."--Dr. Keith Hawkins, author of Law as Last Resort "Coercion to Compromise is a powerful, important book. [Vogel] not only enlarges our understanding of the foundations of American criminal justice, but also illuminates the source of critical failures underlying plea bargaining in our own time. This is a pathbreaking work using the methods of social science and history to provide an authoritative and original analysis of previously uncharted terrain."--Frank Munger, author of Rights of Inclusion "This ambitious and compelling study provides a novel explanation for the emergence of plea bargaining in the American judiciary system. Vogel has written a social history of the first order and in the process sheds light on the limitations of plea bargaining in the contemporary context."--Kitty Calavita, coauthor of Big Money Crime "A magnificent achievement. Coercion to Compromise is a comprehensive, yet subtle and theoretically rich history of the origins of plea bargaining in the nineteenth-century Massachusetts courts. An important book, [it] will reward its readers tenfold."--Susan Silbey, author of The Common Place of Law "Plea bargaining has long been a controversial practice, symbolizing either unwarranted leniency for offenders and the deliberate subversion of formal legal authority, or an emphasis on efficiency at the expense of justice. Mary Vogel explores its distinctively American origins in the context of social and political change in early nineteenth-century America in a book which raises the analysis of the criminal process to a new level of theoretical sophistication."--Dr. Keith Hawkins, author of Law as Last Resort "Coercion to Compromise is a powerful, important book. [Vogel] not only enlarges our understanding of the foundations of American criminal justice, but also illuminates the source of critical failures underlying plea bargaining in our own time. This is a pathbreaking work using the methods of social science and history to provide an authoritative and original analysis of previously uncharted terrain."--Frank Munger, author of Rights of Inclusion "This ambitious and compelling study provides a novel explanation for the emergence of plea bargaining in the American judiciary system. Vogel has written a social history of the first order and in the process sheds light on the limitations of plea bargaining in the contemporary context."--Kitty Calavita, coauthor of Big Money Crime