NCJ Number
93241
Date Published
1983
Length
20 pages
Annotation
Dutch prosecutors have resisted sentencing guidelines because they do not properly reflect individual factors considered by prosecutors in preparing sentencing recommendations. Introduction of descriptive guidelines is proposed.
Abstract
The purpose of the existing guidelines is to harmonize the decisions of local prosecutors regarding criminal cases. Dutch judges do not themselves use the guidelines, as the prosecutor is responsible for making well-considered sentencing suggestions, in keeping with the central position of the public prosecutor's office within the criminal justice system of the Netherlands. The national guidelines on the sentences to be demanded for drunken driving and other crimes have met with much criticism from local prosecutors. The semi-standardized way in which experienced prosecutors have traditionally prepared their decisions naturally limits their receptivity toward formal guidelines imposed from above. Imposition of such guidelines implies that each prosecutor must do away with his/her privately developed agenda. Since this agenda directly reflects his/her perceptions of justice, resistance is the logical result. To resolve the problem, the author advocates development and adoption of sentencing guidelines based on the common ground of prosecutors' methodologies. Such guidelines are being used experimentally by the local prosecutors of The Hague. Notes and a bibliography accompany the text.