A System of Pleas

Social science research needs to expand beyond the courtroom and the jury room to address the multitude of factors involved in plea decisions and the influences at work on the various legal system players (e.g., defendants, defense attorneys, prosecutors, etc.). This work is both a culmination of the current state of plea bargaining research and a call to action for future researchers. All of the areas addressed - from innocents pleading guilty to prosecutor charging decisions to mass incarceration and felon disenfranchisement - merge to create a picture of our current criminal justice system as it really is, and how social science can move forward within it.