Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-n9wrp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-22T11:25:19.996Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Discretion, Exchange and Social Control: Bail Bondsmen in Criminal Courts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Forrest Dill
Forrest Dill*
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

An impression widely held has it that American criminal courts are caught in a crisis. The manifestations of this presumably critical condition are well-known: ever-expanding workloads; indigent defendants held for weeks, months, and sometimes years of pre-trial confinement; officials and attorneys preoccupied with the mechanics of “plea bargains” instead of the intricacies of trials; protracted delays in settling some cases; disposition of other cases by means of arbitrary and prejudicial techniques; pervasive inequalities in sentencing decisions, and so on.

During the last five years, these symptoms have received attention from a number of respected journalists (James, 1971; Downie, 1972; Jackson, 1974). Criminal courts and their ailments have come under extensive study by several recent government commissions (President's Commission, 1967; Skolnick, 1969; National Advisory Commission, 1973). Social scientists have also shown increasing interest in these problems (Skolnick, 1967; Blumberg, 1970; Mileski, 1971; Levin, 1972; Mather, 1974).

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , Summer 1975 , pp. 639 - 674
Copyright
Copyright © 1975 The Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This work was made possible by financial support from the Russell Sage Foundation and the Walter E. Meyer Research Institute of Law and organizational support from the Center for the Study of Law and Society, University of California, Berkeley. I am most grateful to Marc Galanter, Sheldon L. Messinger, Philippe Nonet, Jerome H. Skolnick, and Gerald D. Suttles for helpful comments and criticisms on earlier drafts of this paper.

References

CASE

Taylor v. Taintor, 83 U.S. 366 (1872).Google Scholar

References

ARES, Charles and Herbert, STURZ (1962) “Bail and the Indigent Accused,” 8 Crime and Delinquency 12.Google Scholar
BALCH, Robert W. (1974) “Deferred Prosecution: The Juvenilization of the Criminal Justice System,” 38 Federal Probation 46.Google Scholar
BEELEY, Arthur L. (1927) The Bail System in Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (reissued 1966).Google Scholar
BITTNER, Egon (1970) The Functions of the Police in Modern Society. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
BLUMBERG, Abraham S. (1967) “The Practice of Law as a Confidence Game,” 1 Law & Society Review 15.Google Scholar
BLUMBERG, Abraham S. (1970) Criminal Justice. Chicago: Quadrangle Books.Google Scholar
CHAMBLISS, William J. (1971) “Vice, Corruption, Bureaucracy, and Power,” 1971 Wisconsin Law Review 1150.Google Scholar
COX, Archibald (1968) The Warren Court Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DOWNIE, Leonard (1971) Justice Denied. Baltimore: Penquin Books.Google Scholar
FEELEY, Malcolm M. (1973) “Two Models of the Criminal Justice Sysstem: An Organizational Perspective,” 7 Law & Society Review 407.Google Scholar
FLEMING, Macklin (1974) The Price of Perfect Justice. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
FOOTE, Caleb (1954) “Compelling Appearance in Court: Administration of Bail in Philadelphia,” 102 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 1031.Google Scholar
FOOTE, Caleb (1958) “A Study of the Administration of Bail in New York City,” 106 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 693.Google Scholar
FOOTE, Caleb (1965) “The Coming Constitutional Crisis in Bail,” 113 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 959.Google Scholar
FREED, Daniel J. and Patricia M., WALD (1964) Bail in the United States: 1964. Washington, D. C: National Conference on Bail and Criminal Justice.Google Scholar
FRIEDMAN, Lawrence M. (1973) A History of American Law. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
GOLDFARB, Ronald (1965) Ransom: A Critique of the American Bail System. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
John, HOSKINS (1968) “Tinkering with the California Bail System,” 56 California Law Review 1134.Google Scholar
INGRAHAM, Barton L. (1974) “The Impact of Argersinger—One Year Later,” 8 Law & Society Review 615.Google Scholar
JACKSON, Donald Dale (1975) Judges. New York: Atheneum.Google Scholar
JAMES, Howard (1971) Crisis in the Courts. New York: David McKay.Google Scholar
KARLEN, Delmar (1967) Anglo-American Criminal Justice. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
LAFAVE, Wayne R. and Frank J., REMINGTON (1965) “Controlling the Police: The Judge's Role in Making and Reviewing Law Enforcement Decisions,” 63 Michigan Law Review 987.Google Scholar
LEFSTEIN, N. et al. (1969) “In Search of Juvenile Justice,” 5 Law & Society Review 491.Google Scholar
LEMERT, Edwin M. (1970) Social Action and Legal Change. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
LEVIN, Martin (1972) “Urban Politics and Judicial Behavior,” 1 Journal of Legal Studies 193.Google Scholar
LEVY, Leonard W. (1974) Against the Law. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
MATHER, Lynn M. (1973) “Some Determinants of the Method of Case Disposition: Decision-Making by Public Defenders in Los Angeles,” 8 Law & Society Review 187.Google Scholar
MILESKI, Maureen (1971) “Courtroom Encounters: An Observation Study of a Lower Criminal Court,” 5 Law & Society Review 473.Google Scholar
MILNER, Neal A. (1971) The Court and Local Law Enforcement. Beverly Hills, California: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
MOLEY, Raymond (1930) Our Criminal Courts. New York: Minton, Balch and Company.Google Scholar
MUELLER, Gerhard O.W. and Fre LE, POOLE-GRIFFTHS (1969) Comparative Criminal Procedure. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMISSION (1973). National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, Report on Courts. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BAIL AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE (1965) Proceedings and Interim Report. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BAIL AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE (1966) Bail and Summons: 1965. Washington, D. C.Google Scholar
OHLIN, Lloyd E. (ed.) (1973) Prisoners in America. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PAULSEN, Monrad (1966) “Pre-Trial Release in the United States,” 66 Columbia Law Review 109.Google Scholar
POUND, Roscoe (1945) Criminal Justice in America. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION (1967) The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, Task Force Report: Courts. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
ROTHMAN, David (1972) “Of Prisons, Asylums, and Other Decaying Institutions,” 26 The Public Interest 3.Google Scholar
SCHUBERT, Glendon (1970) The Constitutional Polity. Boston: Boston University Press.Google Scholar
SKOLNICK, Jerome H. (1967) “Social Control in the Adversary System,” 11 Journal of Conflict Resolution 52.Google Scholar
SKOLNICK, Jerome H. (1969) The Politics of Protest. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
SILVERSTEIN, Lee (1966) “Bail in the State Courts—A Field Study and Report,” 50 Minnesota Law Review 621.Google Scholar
SUFFET, Frederick (1966) “Bail Setting: A Study of Courtroom Interaction,” 12 Crime and Delinquency 318.Google Scholar
SUTHERLAND, Edwin H. and Cressey, Donald R. (1970) Principles of Criminology. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company.Google Scholar
U.S. SENATE (1964) Hearings, Bills to Improve Federal Bail Procedures. 88th Cong., 2nd Sess.Google Scholar
U.S. SENATE (1966) Hearings, A Proposal to Modify Existing Procedures Governing the Interstate Rendition of Fugitive Bailees. 89th Cong., 2nd Sess.Google Scholar
VIRTUE, Maxine Boord (1962) Survey of Metropolitan Courts. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VORENBERG, Elizabeth W. and James, VORENBERG (1973), “Early Diversion from the Criminal Justice System,” in Ohlin, Lloyd E. (ed.) Prisoners in America. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
WASBY, Stephen L. (1970) The Impact of the United States Supreme Court: Some Perspectives. Homewood, III.: The Dorsey Press.Google Scholar
WICE, Paul (1974) “Purveyors of Freedom: The Professional Bondsmen,” 11 Society 34.Google Scholar
WICE, Paul and Rita James, SIMON (1970) “Pretrial Release: A Survey of Alternative Practices,” 34 Federal Probation 60.Google Scholar
WOOD, Arthur L. (1967) Criminal Lawyer. New Haven: College and University Press.Google Scholar
YALE LAW JOURNAL (1961) “Bail: An Ancient Practice Reexamined,” 70 Yale Law Journal 966.Google Scholar
YALE LAW JOURNAL (1964) “Bailbondsmen and the Fugitive Accused—The Need for Formal Removal Procedures,” 73 Yale Law Journal 1098.Google Scholar