Guilty Pleas

In most criminal justice systems, many defendants who plead guilty to committing a crime receive a sentence reduction. This chapter discusses the claim that such guilty plea discounts exert coercive pressure on defendants to an extent that makes their decision to plead guilty involuntary. It argues that the conception of coercion that proponents of the concern rely on is flawed. Other approaches to sustaining the objection are then examined that draw heavily on the philosophical literature on coercion, but it is argued that none of them imply that guilty plea discounts are generally coercive. Finally, the chapter demonstrates why one can consistently claim that guilty plea discounts are usually not coercive while maintaining that trial penalties usually are coercive.