Rethinking Prosecutorial Discretion: Towards A Moral Cartography of Prosecutors

Usos y abusos del sistema penal. Su uso como forma de emancipación femenina: Un estudio de caso del delito de trata de personas en Colombia

Diego Tuesta

The British Journal of Criminology, 2021, vol. 61, issue 6, 1486-1502

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Global South; human trafficking; justification; Madre de Dios; moral cartography; prosecutorial coordination (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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