Argument: Plea bargaining for testimony encourages crime by providing criminals an escape route

Support

• Welch, Michael. Corrections: A Critical Approach McGraw-Hill, 2003. Welch refutes the common argument that plea bargaining helps round up criminals and keep society safe by arguing that it actually encourage criminals, by providing them with the safe assumption that their sentence can be commuted by ratting out their friends.

Counter-argument

If this were true, there should be empirical evidence to support this claim since plea bargaining has been practiced for many years now. Where is the proof?

See also