Book Review: Criminal Justice and Discretion

• DOI: 10.1177/009385487900600308
• Author: Carl E. Pope
• Published date: 01 September 1979
• Date: 01 September 1979
• Subject Matter: Articles

296

CRIMINAL

JUSTICE

AND

DISCRETION

THE

INVISIBLE

JUSTICE

SYSTEM :

DISCRETION

AND

THE

LA

W.

Edited

by

Burton

Atkins

and

Mark

Pogrebin.

Cincinnati;

Ohio:

Anderson,

1978.

Pp.

404.

Atkins

and

Pogrebin’s

The

Invisible

Justice

System

is

a

timely

publication,

in

that

academics

and

policy

makers

alike

have

become

increasingly

concerned

with

the

manifestation

of

discretion

at

various

stages

of

criminal

processing.

This

is

especially

true

with

reference

to

sentencing

decisions,

with

attention

primarily

focused

upon

the

role

of

trial

judges

and,

subsequently,

that

of

parole

boards.

Writers

such

as

Norval

Morris,

Leslie

Wilkins,

David

Fogel,

Andrew

Von

Hirsch

and

others

have

argued

for

a

rethinking

and

some

form

of

limitation

on

judicial

and

parole

board

discretion.

Similarly,

both

the

federal

govern-

ment

and

a

majority

of

states

are

proposing

(some

have

alreadyenacted)

legislation

to

restrict

the

scope

of

sentencing

discretion

by

a

variety

of

means,

including

sentencing

commissions,

fixed-

or

flat-time

sen-

tencing

statutes,

or

the

elimination

of

parole

boards.

Attention

has

also

turned

toward

specifying

the

limits

of

discretion

in

the

form

of

criteria

to

guide

decision

makers.

For

example,

in

a

series

of

recent

rulings,

the

Supreme

Court

has

upheld

the

constitutionality

of

death

penalty

legislation

where

standards

have

been

enacted

to

guide

judges

and/or

juries

in

reaching

such

monumental

decisions.

In

The

Invisible

Justice

System

the

authors

examine

the

existence

of

discretion

throughout

the

criminal

justice

system

and

report

a

variety

of

knowledgeable

suggestions

for

its

control.

In

doing

so,

they

draw

from

the

previous

works

of

some

notable

scholars-Joseph

Goldstein,

Donald

Newman,

Kenneth

Culp

Davis,

Albert

Reiss,

George

Cole,

Don

Gottfredson,

and

the

like-who

have

written

rather

extensively

in

this

area.

All

but

one

of

the

selections

were

published

elsewhere,

with

the

majority

of

content

garnered

from

law

review

journals.

The

text

begins

with

a

section

entitled

&dquo;Discretion

and

the

Criminal

Justice

System,&dquo;

which

provides

a

general

overview

of

problems

and

issues

surrounding

the

topic.

Atkins

and

Pogrebin’s

own

introductory

remarks

included

here

are

concise,

well

organized,

and

provide

the

reader

with

an

outline

of

what

is

to

follow.

However,

the

authors

are