NCJ Number
135664
Date Published
1989
Length
16 pages
Annotation
The constantly growing workload of the German criminal justice system has forced legislators to rationalize criminal proceedings, to look at diversion and resocialization to relieve pressures on the prison system, and to integrate criminal justice administration.
Abstract
Revised criminal procedures have resulted in much discussion in the legal policy field in Germany. In particular, critics have come out against the discontinuance of possibilities available to the public prosecutor. They complain that accused persons are put under pressure and that offenders in a strong financial position are placed at an advantage. Although these critics have legitimate concerns, the German Code of Criminal Procedure contains various possibilities for discontinuance. In contrast to classical German criminal procedure, legal reality has changed. Numerous investigatory proceedings in which grounds for suspicion are found against the accused no longer result in charges. Rather, the department of public prosecution has been given extensive rights to diverge from the legality principle and not bring a public charge. One result of this is that procedural problems are brought forward to investigatory proceedings, as opposed to the classical system in which such problems were reserved for the main proceedings. In similar fashion, courts are empowered to refrain in the main proceedings from passing judgment on the guilt of the accused and instead to discontinue proceedings. After the main hearing, postproceedings begin in which decisions are made on alternatives to sentence enforcement. All procedural segments are thus interwoven with the other. This integration of the German criminal justice system appears to go beyond the immediate area of the prosecuted offense. New paths opened up in German criminal law permit the informal disposal of criminal proceedings and also ease the burden on the prison system. 120 notes