Plea bargaining, or charge negotiation, as it is known as in Australia, involves the different circumstances and pressures the prosecution and judges can put on the defendant in order to convince them to plead guilty to a charge or charges.

The most predominant meaning of charge negotiation to the public are familiar with is the practice of offering to drop some charges or change them in order to get the defendant to plead guilty when there is doubt as to the verdict the courts will give. Charge negotiation can also involve the judge or prosecutors informing the defendant that the likely verdict will be guilty so it would be favourable to the defendant to plead guilty and have that taken into account as a mitigating circumstance although judges themselves cannot determine what charge to prosecute, as determined in...