Law Enforcement Agent Defendants and Prosecutors
Document Type
Book
Publication Date
2021
Abstract
This chapter considers the unique challenges that prosecutors face in investigating and charging police officers suspected of criminal misconduct. This topic has taken on new importance in the wake of the events in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. Modern prosecutors often face intense public pressure to hold police officers accountable for wrongdoing. Despite this pressure, a number of recent studies have found that prosecutors rarely pursue criminal charges against police officers. And when they do pursue criminal charges, prosecutors are less successful in securing convictions against police officers relative to other similarly situated criminal defendants. This chapter examines the causes of and solutions to this problem. The first part of this chapter explores some of the possible reasons for the lack of success in prosecuting law enforcement agent defendants, both at the state and federal level. Some have argued that prosecutors face irreconcilable conflicts of interest in cases involve police officer defendants, while others have noted a number of institutional barriers that prevent the criminal charging and conviction of police officers. The second part of this chapter summarizes some of the most compelling normative recommendations made by prior scholars to improve the investigation and prosecution of criminal conduct by police officers.
Identifier
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190905422.013.25
Recommended Citation
Stephen Rushin, Law Enforcement Agent Defendants and Prosecutors, in The Oxford Handbook of Prosecutors and Prosecution 497 (Ronald F. Wright et al. eds., 2021).