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Narratives and Narrative Structure in Plea Bargaining

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Douglas W. Maynard
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Abstract

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During plea negotiations, attorneys use stories to tell what happened when a defendant was charged with an offense. This paper is concerned with how attorneys tell stories, and includes a consideration of narrative structure and how components of this structure are used in plea negotiations. Components of narrative include: (1) a story entry device; (2) the story itself which may contain a backgrounding segment, action report, and reaction report; and (3) a defense segment in which an attorney denies or explains the defendant's behavior. Systematic employment of these components results in four patterns of negotiations: (1) routine processing, (2) assessing character; (3) disputing facts, and (4) arguing subjectivity. Narrative structure is part of the interaction order of negotiations and is a mechanism through which participants assemble features of a case and aspects of the courtroom setting. Narrators reflexively become part of the stories they tell, which provides a structural motivation for them to perform well during negotiations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , 1988 , pp. 449 - 481
Copyright
Copyright © 1988 by The Law and Society Association

Footnotes

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the National Science Foundation Conference on Language in the Judicial Process, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., July 26–28, 1985. I would like to thank Steve Clayman, Robert Kidder, Judith Levi, and Anne Walker for their helpful comments.

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Statute Cited

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