The Prosecuting Attorney and Reform in Criminal Justice

From time to time during the past three years this Journal has published the comments of the writers on various aspects of the office of prosecuting attorney in the United States and the relation of that office to the process of criminal prosecution.'This chapter is intended to be the conclusion of this series.As such, perhaps it should be simply a summary of what has been found or suggested in previous articles, but it seems more appropriate to discuss the office of prosecuting attorney in its relation to the broad general problem of the improvement of the whole process of criminal law administration.We retract no part of the estimate, suggested frequently throughout this series, that the office of prosecutor is the central force which gives tone and momentum to the creaking movement of our criminal justice machinery.There can be no doubt that where the prosecutor is strong offenders are caught and convicted, but where he is weak the best of machinery fails completely.Perhaps this reflection should lead to the conclusion that our whole problem can be solved by concentrating exclusively upon the prosecutor's office-by rehabilitating it to make high quality the rule instead of the exception.Nevertheless, our study of the prosecutor's office indicates that the problems

Criminal justice · Criminology · Defense attorney · Political science · Criminal Law and Evidence · Law · Psychology

• Powers and Duties of the State Attorney-General in Criminal Prosecution

  Earl H De Long•Journal of Criminal Law and…•1934

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