Overview
A defendant’s right to legal counsel in a criminal prosecution is one of the most familiar of the Constitution’s due process protections. In 1963, the Supreme Court declared in Gideon v. Wainwright that
There are few defendants charged with crime, few indeed, who fail to hire the best lawyers they can get to prepare and present their defenses. That government hires lawyers to prosecute and defendants who have the money hire lawyers to defend are the strongest indications of the widespread belief that lawyers in criminal courts are necessities, not luxuries.
This entry reviews the criminal defense profession. The first section reviews the historical origins of counsel in the English legal system, tracing its evolution into colonial courts. The history of the American legal profession is marked by the rapid changes of a nation that adjusted, over the course of a few generations, to political independence, frontier expansion, abolition of slavery, immigration, and the Industrial...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Recommended Reading and References
Benner L, Lynch B (1973) The other face of justice. National Legal Aid and Defenders Association, Washington, DC
Bureau of Labor Statistics (2011) Occupational employment statistics. http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.pdf
Casper J (1971) Did you have a lawyer when you went to court? No, I had a public defender. Yale Rev Law Soc Action 1:4–9
Casper J, Tyler T, Fisher B (1988) Procedural justice in felony cases. Law Soc Rev 22:483–507
Cohen T (2011) Who’s better at defending criminals? Does type of defense attorney matter in terms of producing favorable case outcomes. US Bureau of Justice Statistics, Washington, DC, Working Paper Series. http://freealexander.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/SSRN-id1876474.pdf
Davies A, Worden A (2009) State politics and the right to counsel: a comparative analysis. Law Soc Rev 43:187–220
Donahue C Jr (1964) An historical argument for right to counsel during police interrogation. Yale Law J 73:1000–1057
Drinan C (2009) The third generation of indigent defense litigation. N Y Univ Rev Law Soc Change 33:33–427
Ehrhard S (2008) Plea bargaining and the death penalty: an exploratory study. Just Sys J 29:313
Eichman C (1966) Impact of the Gideon decision upon crime and sentencing in Florida. Florida Division of Corrections Research and Statistics Section, Tallahassee
Eisenberg T, Johnson S (2003) Implicit racial attitudes of death penalty lawyers. DePaul Law Rev 53:1539–1556
Emmelman D (1996) Trial by plea bargain. Law Soc Rev 30:335
Flemming R (1988) Client games: defense attorney perspectives on their relations with clients. Am Bar Assoc Res J 1988:253–277
Flemming R, Nardulli P, Eisenstein J (1992) The craft of justice: politics and work in criminal court communities. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia
Friedman L (2007) History of American law, 3rd edn. Simon & Schuster, New York
Galanter M (2005) Lowering the bar: lawyer jokes and legal culture. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison
Hanson R, Ostrom B, Hewitt W, Lomvardias C (1992) Indigent defenders get the job done and done well. National Center for State Courts, Williamsburg
Hartley R, Miller H, Spohn C (2010) Did you get what you pay for? Type of counsel and its effect on criminal court outcomes. J Crim Justice 38:1063–1070
Heinz J, Laumann E (1994) Chicago lawyers: the social structure of the bar, revised. Russell Sage Foundation and Chicago: American Bar Foundation, New York
Heinz J, Nelson R, Sandefur R, Laumann E (2005) Urban lawyers: the new social structure of the bar. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Houlden P, Balkin S (1985) Cost and quality of indigent defense: ad hoc vs coordinated assignment of the private bar within a mixed system. Justice Sys J 10:159–172
Iyengar R (2005) An analysis of the performance of Federal Indigent Defense Counsel. Princeton University, working paper
Langton L, Farole D (2010) State public defender programs, 2007 NCJ 228229. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Washington, DC
McIntyre L (1987) The public defender: the practice of law in the shadows of repute. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
National Association for Legal Professionals (2006) Employment patterns – 1982–2004. NALP Bulletin, June 2006
Siemsen C (2004) Emotional trials: moral dilemmas of women criminal defense attorneys. Northeastern University Press, Boston
Smith RH (1919) Justice and the poor. Carnegie Foundation, New York, Bulletin # 13
Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics (1977) Washington DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics
Spangenberg Group website: http://www.spangenberggroup.com/
Tata C (2007) In the interests of clients or commerce? Legal aid, supply, demand, and ‘ethical indeterminacy’ in criminal defense work. J Law Soc 34:489–519
Worden A (1993) Counsel for the poor: an evaluation of contracting for indigent criminal defense. Justice Q 10:613–637
Worden A (1998) Representing the accused: professional values and professional choices of small-town lawyers. Crim Just Rev 23:1–28
Worden A, Worden R (1989) Local politics and the provision of indigent defense counsel. Law Policy 11:410–424
Worden A, Davies A, Brown E (2010–2011) A patchwork of policies: Justice, due process, and public defense across American states. Albany Law Rev 74:1423–1463
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Worden, A.P., Davies, A.L.B. (2014). Criminal Defense Profession. In: Bruinsma, G., Weisburd, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_38
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_38
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5689-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5690-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law