Abstract
The criminal justice system aspires to be open, transparent and accountable to the public. Indeed, the courts and the key organisations involved in the criminal justice system in Victoria—including Victoria Police, Victoria Legal Aid and the Office of Public Prosecutions—all recognise that transparency, integrity and accountability are key goals. Accordingly, it might be asked how these values fit with a system that so frequently embraces plea negotiations. This chapter discusses this question and considers how public confidence in the criminal justice system can be developed and maintained. This includes proposing two recommendations for ways to improve understandings of plea negotiations.
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Notes
- 1.
A Victorian daily newspaper that tends to take a less populist approach than its main morning rival, the Herald Sun, one of the titles of the Murdoch press in Australia. It has a far lower circulation than the Herald Sun.
- 2.
Emeritus Professor Freiberg is the Chair of the Victorian Sentencing Advisory Council.
- 3.
You be the Judge is an interactive video presentation of various sentencing scenarios which requires the viewer to move through various stages of the sentencing process: see https://www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au/you-be-the-judge/virtual-judge.
- 4.
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Flynn, A., Freiberg, A. (2018). Building Trust and Confidence in the Criminal Justice System. In: Plea Negotiations. Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92630-8_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92630-8_9
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