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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 6 page paper which examines if police discretion should exist and the effects it has on the criminal justice system. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGpoldis.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
an institution of social control" (Sunshine and Tyler, 2003, p. 513). As time has passed, there have been distinctions made "between the ministration and administration of justice" (Police Discretion,
2003). Ministration represents everything being done by a procedural book of procedures (Police Discretion, 2003). While this may work well on a factory assembly line, ministerial justice cannot
realistically exist in the American criminal justice system (Police Discretion, 2003). Therefore, it is often left up to the police officers to administer justice as they see fit, but
there is no blanket book of rules and regulations that can accommodate every situation. Therefore, decision-making is often dictated by the employment of police discretion. Contrary to popular belief,
"Discretion is not doing as you please" (Police Discretion, 2003). It is recommended that the student who is writing about this topic have a clear understanding of what discretion
is, how it is defined and categorized, the situations in which it must be exercised, the effects of discretion on American criminal justice, and whether or not discretion should be
legally regulated. Discretion is most accurately defined as "the making of choices among a number of possible courses of action" (Police Discretion, 2003). In his acclaimed study of
discretion, University of Chicago law professor Kenneth Culp Davis discovered that police, despite their relatively low social profile, generate important policy decisions and are responsible for "far more discretionary determinations
in individual cases than do any other class of administrators" (Williams, 1984, p. 4). According to Professor Davis, discretionary type of law enforcement "may account for about half of
all the discretionary power that is exercised in individual cases in our entire legal system" (Williams, 1984, p. 4). Gaines, Kappeler and Vaughn (2002) determined there are three types
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