Document Type
Book Review
Publication Date
2013
Publication Information
Michael M. O’Hear, (The History of) Criminal Justice as a Morality Play, 161 U. Pa. L. Rev. Online 132 (2013) (reviewing Stephanos Bibas, The Machinery of Criminal Justice (2012)), http://www.pennumbra.com/essays/01-2013/OHear.pdf. © University of Pennsylvania Law Review
Source Publication
161 University of Pennsylvania Law Review Online 132 (2013)
Abstract
Stephanos Bibas's new book, The Machinery of Justice, looks back to colonial-era criminal justice as an ideal of sorts. Criminal trials in that time were a "participatory morality play," in which ordinary members of the community played a crucial role. In Bibas's view, the subsequent professionalization of the criminal-justice system, as well as related developments like the introduction of plea bargaining, have led to widespread contemporary distrust of the system. The present essay reviews Bibas's book and suggests additional reasons besides professionalization why the morality-play model broke down in the nineteenth century. Taking these additional considerations into account, the prospects for reviving the morality-play model may be even dimmer than Bibas recognizes, although a number of his proposed reforms nonetheless appear attractive.
Repository Citation
O'Hear, Michael M., "Book Review: (The History of) Criminal Justice as a Morality Play" (2013). Faculty Publications. 632.
https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/facpub/632