Q&A with Cynthia Alkon about Negotiating Crime Textbook

Cynthia Alkon, professor at Texas A&M University, and Andrea Schneider, professor at Marquette University, recently co-authored a new textbook titled Negotiating Crime: Plea Bargaining, Problem Solving, and Dispute Resolution in the Criminal Context. 
 
Negotiating Crime is the first textbook of its kind, covering the processes through which criminal cases are resolved in the United States beyond trials. This work brings together criminal procedure, current policy debates, and dispute resolution concepts to examine the practice of criminal law in the 21st century. Negotiating Crime is published by Carolina Academic Press and is available at the Barnes and Noble bookstore on main campus, and on Amazon and other retailers.
 
Cynthia Alkon is Professor of Law at Texas A&M University School of Law and Director of the Texas A&M Criminal Law, Justice, & Policy Program. She is also on the faculty of the Aggie Dispute Resolution Program (https://law.tamu.edu/prospective/academics/centers-clinics-programs/aggie-dispute-resolution-program). Prior to joining Texas A&M, Alkon served as a public defender in Los Angeles County where she represented defendants charged with crimes from misdemeanor to murder. She has lived and worked broad in Belarus, Albania, and Poland, and developed rule of law reform in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

What inspired you and your coauthor to write this textbook? 
 
There had not been one textbook that brought together, in an accessible way, all the processes, beyond trial, through which criminal cases are resolved in this country.  Only a small overall percentage of criminal cases go to trial (3-5%). Law students who intend to go into criminal practice as either defense lawyers or prosecutors usually do not learn in law school both how to negotiate in the criminal context and about the variety of other processes that could be available, such as drug courts or restorative justice. 
 
In law schools we do an excellent job of teaching other basic lawyering skills, such as research and writing, and oral advocacy.  But, few students are graduating with basic negotiation skills, and fewer still with negotiation skills focused on criminal cases.  In the specific context of criminal cases, one reason for this is that there are no easily accessible texts to use.  We wanted to change that.  We also want students to be think critically about these various processes since we know that they will be leaders in determining the future for our criminal legal system and we want to prepare them for the role of future reformers and leaders.
 
What was your writing process? 
 
We spent six years working on this book in between a number of other projects.  Every summer we would get together in Milwaukee and spend a week or two working, organizing, and planning.  The book took longer than either of us thought that it would.  However, this longer process made the book better as it gave us time to think, consider, and reconsider, how to approach the material.  This extended writing process also helped to forge a strong friendship and we are already collaborating on other projects, building from ideas we discussed and played with while writing the book.
 
What was your biggest challenge? 
 
The biggest challenge for me was to present the material in a clear way and not get lost in the details.  There is a huge amount of literature that we were pulling from for each chapter.  Figuring out how to organize it and distill it down was a challenge.  I am extraordinarily grateful to my co-author, Andrea Kupfer Schneider, who was brilliant at thinking about how to organize all of the information.