NCJ Number
165525
Date Published
1995
Length
278 pages
Annotation
The role and influence of the public prosecutor on sentencing in England and Wales, Scotland, the Netherlands, and Germany are examined.
Abstract
An introduction notes that prosecutors have varied duties ranging from reviewing police files and making decisions on how to handle each case to conducting the case for the government at trial. How each responsibility is carried out may reflect or determine current criminal justice policy. The discussion analyzes prosecutorial power to issue sanctions such as fines, warnings, and referrals to rehabilitation at the pretrial stage. It focuses on the issues of how far the legal framework allows the prosecutor's positive sentencing role to extend before the independence between the prosecutor and judge is reduced below reasonable bounds and the extent to which a positive sentencing role for the prosecutor is appropriate. Other topics include whether the prosecutor's sentencing role conflicts with the roles of administrator and government employee and the impact of the prosecutor's sentencing role. The text also develops three models of justice that seek to analyze and explain the increasing use of prosecutorial power. Tables, footnotes, index, and approximately 350 references