Discuss how judicial attitudes may extend beyond the courtroom and how those attitudes influence the system.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Police policies may be directly influenced by the judge, whose sentencing discretion affects the arrest process. If a judge is known to have a liberal attitude toward police discretion, the local police department may be more inclined to engage in practices that border on entrapment or to pursue cases through easily obtained wiretaps. Similarly, if the judge usually imposes minimal sentences for a particular offense, the police may be reluctant to arrest offenders for that crime, knowing that it may be a waste of time. The district attorney's office may also be sensitive to judicial attitudes. The district attorney might forego indictments in cases that the presiding magistrate expressly considers trivial or quasi-criminal and on which the magistrate takes only token action. The judge also considers requests by prosecutors for leniency (or severity) in sentencing. The judge's reactions to these requests are important if the police and district attorney are to honor bargains they have made with the defendants. For example, the police could tell informers that they will try to have the judge go easy on them. If the judge ignores that request, the department's bargaining power is severely diminished.