Book contents
- Private Criminal Justice
- Private Criminal Justice
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The Rise of Private Criminal Justice
- 1 Criminal Justice without the State
- 2 A Brief History of Crime
- 3 Public Failings, Private Opportunities
- 4 Private Law Enforcement
- 5 Private Criminal Settlements as Plea Bargains
- 6 Private Criminal Settlements as Blackmail
- 7 Private Adjudications
- 8 Private Dispositions
- 9 Regulating Private Criminal Justice
- 10 The Verdict on Private Criminal Justice
- Notes
- Index
10 - The Verdict on Private Criminal Justice
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 September 2023
- Private Criminal Justice
- Private Criminal Justice
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The Rise of Private Criminal Justice
- 1 Criminal Justice without the State
- 2 A Brief History of Crime
- 3 Public Failings, Private Opportunities
- 4 Private Law Enforcement
- 5 Private Criminal Settlements as Plea Bargains
- 6 Private Criminal Settlements as Blackmail
- 7 Private Adjudications
- 8 Private Dispositions
- 9 Regulating Private Criminal Justice
- 10 The Verdict on Private Criminal Justice
- Notes
- Index
Summary
The final chapter evaluates the social costs and benefits of the private criminal justice system. It first addresses the question of if and how a private criminal justice system can represent the interests of society as a whole. The chapter argues that a robust private criminal justice system can actually make the public criminal justice system more responsive to societal preferences, but only if it is open and transparent. A completely open private criminal justice system could be lightly monitored by actors in the public criminal justice system, who could intervene if necessary. Meanwhile, the private criminal justice system could blunt the politicization of the public criminal justice system and craft more flexible and creative responses to criminal conduct. The chapter also discusses the different levels of procedural protections for defendants, and the differences in the ways that private police are accountable in comparison with their public counterparts. It ends by exploring the ways in which a private criminal justice system could actually decrease the inequalities of the system and widen the net of social control, leading to more efficient detection and enforcement of criminal activity.
Keywords
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- Information
- Private Criminal JusticeHow Private Parties are Enforcing Criminal Law and Transforming Our Justice System, pp. 170 - 193Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023