Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 December 2022
Chapters 1 and 2 looked at how the official discourse is based on tactical defendants ‘playing the system’ and the justification for sentence discounts corresponding to the timing of guilty pleas is utilitarian benefits to the criminal justice system. This chapter offers an alternative perspective. First it argues that sentence discount for guilty pleas is a form of implicit plea bargaining despite the avoidance to officially recognise the practice of plea bargaining in different jurisdictions. Moreover, operating in tandem with advanced sentence indications and other stages of the criminal process, sentence discounts for guilty pleas arguably serve as pressure for defendants to plead guilty.
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