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52 Stetson L. Rev. 31 (2022-2023)
Prosecutorial Discretion, Justice, and Compassion: Reestablishing Balance in Our Legal System

handle is hein.journals/stet52 and id is 37 raw text is: PROSECUTORIAL DISCRETION, JUSTICE, AND COMPASSION: REESTABLISHING BALANCE IN OUR LEGAL SYSTEM Anna D. Vaynman* & Mark R. Fondacaro** I. INTRODUCTION The decentralized balance of power between the judiciary, prosecution, defense, law enforcement, and jury is a significant strength in the design of our criminal justice system. A fair and balanced division of power serves to promote stability and legitimacy.1 The division itself limits the potential for abuse by individuals, individual institutions, or branches of government. In our highly adversarial criminal justice system, there exists a delicate balance of powers, one that has in recent years begun to tilt in one direction. Specifically, scholars and practitioners alike * © 2022, All Rights Reserved. Ph.D. Candidate at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. The author holds a Master's degree in Psychology from John Jay College, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Barnard College, Columbia University. ** © 2022, All Rights Reserved. Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, Indiana University- Bloomington; J.D., Columbia University School of Law; B.A., Psychology with a concentration in Biological Sciences, Stony Brook University. The author is a Professor of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and former Director of the Doctoral Training Program in Psychology & Law at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center, CUNY. Before joining the faculty at John Jay, he was an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Florida and an Associate Director of the Levin College of Law's Center on Children and Families. He also pursued post-doctoral training in Social Ecology at Stanford University. During the spring 2022 semester, he was on sabbatical leave with research appointments at both Vanderbilt and Yale Law Schools. We would like to express our gratitude to Christopher Slobogin for his insightful comments and feedback on an earlier draft of this Article. We would also like to thank Tommi Mandell for her assistance with bluebooking the footnotes for this Article. 1. See generally Tom R. Tyler, Psychological Perspectives on Legitimacy and Legitimation, 57 ANN. REV. PSYCH. 375 (2006); Richard Danzig, Toward the Creation of a Complementary, Decentralized System of Criminal Justice, 26 STAN. L. REV. 1, 54 (1973) (arguing that overcriminalization and overcentralization are linked); Eryn M. Elliot & Frank P. Williams III, When You No Longer Need Maslow: Exchange, Professionalism, and Decentralization in the Management of Criminal Justice Agencies, 19 PUB. ADMIN. Q. 74 (1995) (arguing from a behavioral perspective that decentralization encourages professionalism, improves performance and productivity, and increases employee satisfaction, despite the potential disadvantage of fragmentation and isolation which could potentially weaken communication).

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