Rethinking prosecutorial discretion: towards a moral cartography of prosecutors

This article examines the justifications that a group of prosecutors employs when coordinating human trafficking investigations in the Amazon. The study is based on interviews with officials who work in Madre de Dios, Peru, a region affected by small-scale gold mining, whose demand for labour has in...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Tuesta, Diego (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2021
In: The British journal of criminology
Year: 2021, Volume: 61, Issue: 6, Pages: 1486-1502
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Keywords:
Global South
Human trafficking
Justification
Madre de Dios
Moral cartography
Prosecutorial coordination
Description
Summary:This article examines the justifications that a group of prosecutors employs when coordinating human trafficking investigations in the Amazon. The study is based on interviews with officials who work in Madre de Dios, Peru, a region affected by small-scale gold mining, whose demand for labour has increased the incidence of human trafficking. I draw from Boltanski and Thévenot’s polity model to elucidate three moral principles regularly endorsed by prosecutors in the course of criminal investigations: efficiency, civic and domestic values. Together these comprise a moral cartography of prosecution. This study from the Global South contributes to a more holistic—and pragmatic—understanding of prosecutors’ charging decisions, complementing research approaching this topic from the perspective of bounded rationality.
ISSN:1464-3529
DOI:10.1093/bjc/azab040