미국의 플리바게닝(Plea Bargaining, 답변협상)에 대한 연구 -발생 원인을 중심으로- = A Study on the Origins of Plea Bargaining in the United States

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Plea Bargaining in the United States is the process whereby a defendant pleads guilty, and the prosecutor and the court, in return, make a favorable disposition to the defendant. The greatest advantage of this system is that it provides courts and prosecutors the capability to dispose of many cases quickly within limited resources. Furthermore, this system benefits defendants to receive more favorable sentences. Despite these advantages and benefits, plea bargaining in the United States has been criticized for a long time. However, the process has not dissipated but is presently established as one of the most widely known criminal justice systems in the United States. This study looks into various assertions as to the origins of plea bargaining. First, in the 1920s, it was asserted that plea bargaining was originated from the pressures of the increase of cases handled. However, in the 1970s, Milton Heumann presumed that there was no correlation between the number of guilty pleas and the handled cases. This led various new assertions to present themselves as to the origins of plea bargaining. In the 1990s, Mike McConville and Chester Mirsky claimed that the political and social change in New York was the origin of plea bargains, and Mary Vogel also contended that the political and social background in Boston in the 1830s and 1840s was the origin of plea bargaining. In 2000, George Fisher found the origin of plea bargains in caseload pressures and in the conflict of interest and authority between judges and prosecutors, which contributed to the occurrence of the system. Based on the overall foregoing views, it may be found that the origin of plea bargains is, above all, caseload pressures followed by the increase of cases. However, it cannot be said that the origin of plea bargains is only in caseload pressures, as the occurrence of plea bargains may also be contributed by jury trials becoming complicated and prolonged, and criminal trials becoming more specialized and lawyerization. In addition, the political, social, and cultural background of the United States that allowed bargaining in prosecutions and sentencing has also been the reason for plea bargains to take place. Then, what is the reality of the criminal justice system in Korea. Whether a decade ago or the present, judges and prosecutors have continually been under the same workload. Thus, it is necessary to reduce the workload pressures of judges and prosecutors. One of the measures to lessen the pressures is the adoption of plea bargaining. It is important for us to take notice of the fact that the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, and Taiwan have also adopted plea bargains and other similar bargaining systems in order to reduce the workload pressures of their respective judges and prosecutors.