The Community Prosecutor: Questions of Professional Discretion

Abstract:     
This Article examines community prosecuting from an ethics perspective. Our focus is not on prosecutors’ compliance with the disciplinary rules, however. The strategies that have been said to exemplify community prosecuting are almost invariably compliant with disciplinary rules and other aspects of the law governing prosecutors. Rather, we take a broader perspective. Our focus is on how prosecutors exercise discretion in the context of adopting community prosecution strategies. We examine this question from both normative and procedural perspectives. We propose that the addition of community-based defense lawyers could help mitigate concerns about prosecutorial discretion in community justice programs by broadening community participation and helping inform the community about an array of potential solutions and their implications.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 34

Keywords: Prosecutors, prosecutorial discretion, ethics, professional responsibility, community justice, community prosecution

JEL Classification: K10, K14, K42

Accepted Paper Series