The Public Prosecutor as Key-Player: Prosecutorial Case-Ending Decisions

Abstract

This article presents the core issue of an 11 European countries study on the processes of diversion and prosecution with the public prosecutor as the key player. In consequence of a high workload large proportions of mass crimes are not brought before court, but are ended at earlier stages of criminal justice systems. Here the public prosecution service fulfils a selective function which differs from country to country according to its legal status and discretionary powers. Therefore the prosecutorial case-ending decisions in form of dismissal of proceedings, conditional disposals and penal orders can not be treated in isolation, but in dependence of its role within the whole criminal justice system and especially of the input from the police level.

The Prosecution Role where Courts Decide Cases

“…A relatively low proportion of cases dealt with by the German CJS are dealt with via full court proceedings. In 2004 it was 12% (see Figure 2 in Jehle et al 2008, see also Elsner and Peters 2006).…”

“…As the analysis in Jehle et al (2008) shows, prosecutorial discretionary and courts' primarily prosecution influenced decisions are used to deal with less serious offences. Logically it is therefore clear that the types of court decision procedures described above are used to deal with more serious types of offences.…”

“…some decisions made by courts (penal orders) are not explored in this chapter but under that on prosecutorial options (see Jehle et al 2008) because this study evaluates them as effectively being prosecution service decisions in half the jurisdictions in which they are available (namely in Germany, France and Croatia 1 -see Table 1 in Jehle et al (2008), whilst in Switzerland (Canton Basel-Stadt), Poland and Hungary it is regarded as a true court decision -see Table 1), such is the extent of prosecutorial influence upon courts making them. The question explored here is in how far other court decisions are influenced by prosecutorial actions or in other words, what the courts' role within Europe's criminal justice systems is.…”

Attrition and Conviction Rates of Sexual Offences in Europe: Definitions and Criminal Justice Responses

“…The prosecution as the intermediate stage between police and court level plays a decisive role for the attrition process in most European countries (Jehle et al 2008). But in any case the prosecution service's workload depends on the input from the police level.…”

Conviction Statistics as an Indicator of Crime Trends in Europe from 1990 to 2006

“…8 The subsequent intervention of the prosecution services reduces even more the number of cases brought before a court because of lack of evidence or lack of public interest in prosecution. Thus, a comparative study of the role of the Public Prosecution Services in Europe has shown that, roughly, between 40% and 50% of the cases treated by five of those Services -France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland and Sweden-in 2004 ended in a simple drop or in a drop based on the grounds that there was no public interest in prosecution (Jehle et al 2008).…”