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Discretionary Decision-Making In The Criminal Justice System

342 Words2 Pages
To understand, what is "discretionary decision making" within the Criminal Courts, let me explain what is discretion. According to the textbook America 's Courts and The Criminal Justice System discretion is the lawful ability of an agent of government to exercise choice in making a decision. Now, "discretionary decisions in the criminal court process are made on the basis of legal judgements" (Neubauer & Fradella, p132). The "three major subcomponents are legal judgements, policy priorities, and personal philosophies" (Cole, 1970; Smith)". An example would be a prosecutor who refuses to file a criminal charge because in her legal judgement, the evidence is not enough to prove all the elements of the offense" (Neubauer & Fradella). In this
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