9 - Regulating Private Criminal Justice

Summary

This chapter reviews the four primary stages of private criminal justice – enforcement, settlement, adjudication, and punishment – and evaluates potential legal reforms to optimize the benefits and minimize the costs of the private criminal justice system. For the enforcement stage, the chapter rejects current attempts to subject private police to the constitutional rules that regulate public police, and instead recommends decreasing the burdens of filing a civil lawsuit against private police who violate the law. For the settlement stage, the chapter proposes legalizing criminal settlements and abolishing most “duty to report” laws. For the adjudicative stage, the chapter recommends a flexible standard of due process along with a robust privilege for private adjudicators and atraining and licensing scheme. For the punishment stage, the chapter again argues in favor of increased civil liability, but argues against changing the definition of self-defense used by most jurisdictions.