The use of pre-trial criminal settlements in the field of minor offences
(2022) European Society of Criminology (ESC) — Location: Malagà (21.September.2022)
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- Abstract
- The criminal transaction procedure is a pre-trial settlement whereby the public prosecutor abandons the prosecution in return for payment of a sum of money by a suspect. This procedure, which was rarely used in Belgium before the health crisis, has been widely used by the prosecutor's office to deal with Covid health offences, as well as the instant criminal transaction. This extrajudicial procedure provides for the police to offer the suspect to pay a fine directly at the scene of the offence, using a contactless terminal or QR code technology. Following this large-scale experiment during the health crisis, this procedure has just been extended to minor offences such as simple theft, possession of drugs or carrying prohibited weapons. A significant number of criminal offences are thus increasingly dealt with by the public prosecutor and the police, without any careful investigation by a judge. This procedure also coincides with the increasing digitalisation and automatisation of the criminal justice system. Based on the issues raised by such procedures, we propose to question those practices, which are now integrated into longer-term criminal policies. In particular, we will ask ourselves whether, beyond the goal of efficiency, increasing repression may also be coveted.
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Citations
Guillain, C. (2022). The use of pre-trial criminal settlements in the field of minor offences. European Society of Criminology (ESC), Malagà.