As the title indicates, the focus here is on that beleaguered practitioner of neutrality, the criminal court judge. Professor Wice has interviewed about 500 critical members of the criminal justice work group in fifteen major cities over a twelve-year period. He has observed numerous trials and bargaining sessions and brings the aroma of the courthouse to his perceptive observations about the art of judging. Here we meet judges as real performers freed of technical, juristic trappings but encumbered by the reality of the courthouse. This work will be of equal interest to lawyers and nonlawyers interested in how criminal court judges judge. (Author abstract)