Plea Bargaining

This is to be an 8-page APA formatted paper (body of the report should contain properly formatted APA style citations and a properly formatted APA reference page). Page count does not include title page or reference page. – Paper is to be double-spaced – Standard-sized paper (8.5″ x 11″) – 1″ margins on all sides (basic “Normal” default Word setting) – 12 pt. Times New Roman font – This is a narrative paper (no bullets) and it is not a “paste-in” paper – If you use long quotes and/or numerous sentence length quotes, your paper must be extended by an equal amount (ex: you paste-in a ¼ page referenced quote – that section must now be ¼ page longer – only original work counts toward page requirements) You are to use the headings I detail in these instructions (Headings are below). But, use just the headings. The bullets I have below each of the headings/sections below are the minimum items that you are to cover in each section. These bullets under the heading are not subheadings – they are just suggestions of things that can or should be covered in each section (think of them as paragraphs topics for each major section). IMPORTANT NOTE: You are free to go over the page count for any or all sections, but EACH section is to be at least the minimum required length (you can’t write an extra page on one section and one less on another). In the Sections / Headings described below you will see that I am looking for “Peer Reviewed Journal Articles.” There is a total of 3 separate journal articles needed for this paper (you can reference a journal as many times and within as many sections as you would like, but there must be a total of 3 different journal articles). You can locate these through the JSU Library’s Journal Databases. If you have never used these databases before, please seek assistance from the library staff (the databases and articles can actual all be found online through the library site once you know how to find them). These are NOT Google articles (of course Google may be able to find you peer reviewed articles – but they will most likely charge you for them and there is no guarantee that they qualify as actual peer reviewed). Sections / Headings NOTE: Again, the bullets below the headings are the minimum that should be covered – BUT – you are encouraged to modify these sections with whatever information you feel applies. I. Introduction One-page minimum (Must use quality sources – No Wikipedia) – Define plea bargaining – Describe how often it is used – Describe how it is the same or different in various courts and courts systems (ex: district court, superior court, federal court, etc) II. Advantages of Plea Bargaining Two-page minimum (Must include at least one Peer Reviewed Journal Article) – Streamlines court case processing – Monetary savings – Faster resolution / closure for victims III. Disadvantages Two-page minimum (Must include at least one Peer Reviewed Journal Article) – Biases and abuses in the system – Victim impacts and shortcomings – District Attorney / State misuses of plea bargaining (can reference specific cases to illustrate some of these abuses) IV. Solutions (Must include at least one Peer Reviewed Journal Article) Three-page minimum (two-pages on solutions and one-page on your choice of a solution) – Solutions can be actual programs or policies that are in current operation or can be what some lawyers/experts think might help (essays and proposed solutions by experts) – The section containing your choice of solutions can also include your overall general thoughts and feelings on the topic of pleas bargaining (this can also include how your thoughts on plea bargaining has changed with your research) V. References