The Politics of Federal Prosecution
Christina L. Boyd, Michael J. Nelson, Ian Ostrander, and Ethan D. Boldt
Abstract
Federal prosecutors have immense power and discretion to decide when to bring criminal charges, what plea bargains to offer, and how to implement the federal government’s legal priorities in their districts. While U.S. Attorneys take pains to emphasize their independence, we know relatively little about the extent to which politics colors federal prosecutorial staffing and decision-making. The Politics of Federal Prosecution draws upon a wealth of data from 1990s to the present to examine the interplay of political factors and federal prosecution. First, the authors find that congressional and ... More
Federal prosecutors have immense power and discretion to decide when to bring criminal charges, what plea bargains to offer, and how to implement the federal government’s legal priorities in their districts. While U.S. Attorneys take pains to emphasize their independence, we know relatively little about the extent to which politics colors federal prosecutorial staffing and decision-making. The Politics of Federal Prosecution draws upon a wealth of data from 1990s to the present to examine the interplay of political factors and federal prosecution. First, the authors find that congressional and presidential politics affect who becomes federal prosecutors and how long those individuals serve. Second, the book demonstrates that signals of presidential and congressional preferences, along with local priorities, affect key prosecutorial decisions: whether to bring prosecutions, how to approach plea bargaining negotiations, and when to utilize criminal asset forfeiture to cripple criminal activities. In short, the book demonstrates that politics affects the behavior of U.S. Attorneys at nearly every stage of their service.
Keywords:
prosecutors,
U.S. Attorneys,
Department of Justice,
plea bargaining,
asset forfeiture,
Senate confirmation,
president,
Congress,
bureaucracy,
criminal justice
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2021 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780197554685 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: February 2021 |
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780197554685.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Christina L. Boyd, author
Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Georgia
Michael J. Nelson, author
Jeffrey L. Hyde and Sharon D. Hyde and Political Science Board of Visitors Early Career Professor in Political Science, Associate Professor of Political Science and Social Data Analytics, and Affiliate Law Faculty, The Pennsylvania State University
Ian Ostrander, author
Assistant Professor of Political Science, Michigan State University
Ethan D. Boldt, author
Assistant Professor, North Dakota State University
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