Discretion in Criminal Justice : The Tension Between Individualization and Uniformity

An exploration of how discretion shapes every stage of criminal justice, revealing the enduring tension between individualized judgment and system-wide fairness.

What really happens when the law is applied―not in statutes or theory, but in the day-to-day decisions that shape liberty, punishment, and public safety?

Discretion in Criminal Justice brings together leading scholars from the American Bar Foundation's pioneering Survey of Criminal Justice to examine one of the system's most enduring and difficult questions: when should discretion guide justice, and when must it be constrained in the name of fairness and uniformity?

Across policing, prosecution, sentencing, parole, and criminal justice education, these essays illuminate the hidden architecture of decision-making that defines outcomes long before a case ever reaches trial verdict. Drawing on original research, retrospective insight, and decades of scholarly impact, the contributors reveal how discretion operates not as an exception―but as the system's organizing principle.

From street-level police judgments to prosecutorial charging decisions, from plea bargaining to sentencing policy, the book traces how discretion can both humanize justice and generate deep inconsistency. It also explores the evolution of criminal justice scholarship and education shaped by the ABF Survey's legacy.

Contributors include Herman Goldstein, Walter J. Dickey, Raymond I. Parnas, Wayne R. LaFave, and Donald J. Newman.

Lloyd E. Ohlin is Touroff-Glueck Professor of Criminal Justice Emeritus at Harvard Law School. Frank J. Remington is Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School.