Why Do Prosecutors Improve Their Behavior?

If politics can be described as a spectacle dominated by candidates attempting to paint a narrative about themselves or their opponent, then prosecutor elections are not an exception. Similar to general elections, prosecutor’s will change their behavior to improve their conviction rates through dismissing cases, taking high-profile cases or increasing trial convictions. In fact, a study about prosecutor elections and trial convictions concluded that “ when an incumbent runs for reelection, the data indicates that there is an increase in the number of trial convictions per year of 7.2 % and an increase in jury trial convictions relative to total convictions per year of 18.3 %. When she faces a challenger, additional increases of 13.0 % and 23.7 %, respectively, arise. An incumbent who is immune from such pressures prosecutes less (11.6 % and 23.8 %) “ ( cite). Although a prosecutor is legally allowed to engage in this behavior, it becomes problematic considering justice …show more content…
Less than 50 cases resulted in any professional sanction for the prosecutor “(Balko 2017). Due to the current callousness towards prosecutorial misconduct, new mechanisms must be put in place to control this behavior. As the statistics above illustrate, the current policies fail at deterring and punishing prosecutor misconduct. The punishments must be altered to change this behavior because their misconduct ultimately affects whether an individual does or does not become incarcerated. Alternately, a legitimate reform of prosecutor elections where prosecutors do not unopposed provides a platform for change in which the electorate can not only demand better behavior from their prosecutor but also to demand stronger prosecution for those prosecutors who commit