Guilty Pleas in an Inquisitorial Setting – An Empirical Study of France

Anglo‐American guilty pleas have inspired criminal justice reformers in many inquisitorially based systems in recent years, in response to caseload pressures. In France, two different procedures based on the defendant's confession were introduced in 1999 and 2004 respectively: an out‐of‐court disposal (the composition pénale ) and a prosecution pathway (the comparution sur reconnaissance préalable de culpabilité ). Basing its analysis upon direct observations and interviews with French public prosecutors, this article examines the impact of these procedures on the French criminal justice system and its actors. Rather than a move from an inquisitorial to a more adversarial system, data collected for this study show a bureaucratization of the French criminal justice process. The role of public prosecutors is changing from that of judicial officers to caseload managers who have delegated part of their workload to less qualified staff for efficiency purposes

Judging the Offender: French Criminal Justice Culture and the Challenges of McDonaldization

This book tackles the growing issues concerning the managerialism and bureacratisation of criminal justice systems across a number of jurisdictions

Understanding the sentencing process in France

French sentencing is characterized by broad judicial discretion and an ethos of individualized justice focused on rehabilitation. The aims are to prevent recidivism, and so protect the interests of society, while reintegrating the offender. By contrast, the political Right, characterized by the recent Sarkozy regime, favors deterrence through harsher penalties, minimum prison sentences, increased incarceration, and preventive detention of offenders considered dangerous. The sentencing process can be understood only within the broader context of inquisitorially rooted criminal procedure. The central part played by the prosecutor (including in case disposition through alternative sanctions) and her role in recommending sentences that the court almost invariably endorses, together with the unitary nature of the judicial profession, means that there is remarkable consistency in penalties imposed. The contrainte pénale, based on a reconsideration of the range of available penalties put forward by the Consensus Commission and legislated in 2014, is unlikely to have great impact without investment in the probation service and a change in the judicial culture that still favors simple sentencing options, including imprisonment, compared with alternatives now in place

C'est un oiseau qui vient de France / [Frédéric] Boissière, comp. ; [Camille Soubise, aut.] ; Jules Wolff, chant ; acc. d'orchestre. Le violon brisé / [Victor] Herpin, comp. ; [R. de St-Prest et L. Christian, aut.] ; Jules Wolff, chant ; acc. d'orchestre

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‘Rushing remand’? Pre-trial detention and bail decision-making in England and Wales

Deprivation of liberty as part of the criminal process is always a significant step, and arguably even more so when the person so deprived has not yet been convicted of an offence. Remand decision making – that is, granting bail or requiring detention of a defendant prior to trial – in the courts of England and Wales is a common and important part of modern criminal procedure, yet has been under-examined in the last two decades. This article presents some of the findings of the first empirical study of remand law and practice in this jurisdiction in many years. It concludes that, notwithstanding that the rate of pretrial detention is comparatively low and practice is broadly in line with domestic and regional standards, there remain significant issues – particularly in relation to the time spent on such decisions and the information provided to courts when considering remands on bail or in custody

First cases of Omicron in France are exhibiting mild symptoms, November 2021–January 2022

International audienceObjectivesWe aimed to investigate the first Omicron cases detected in France in order to assess case characteristics and provide supporting information on the possible impact of this variant on the healthcare system.MethodsA standardized questionnaire was used to collect information from confirmed and probable Omicron cases.ResultsMedian age of 468 investigated cases was 35 years, 376 were symptomatic (89%); 64% were vaccinated with two doses and 7% had received three doses. Loss of smell and taste were reported by 8.3% and 9% of cases, respectively. Seven cases were hospitalized, three of those were unvaccinated (including two with reported precondition). No admissions to intensive care and no deaths were reported.ConclusionsOur results confirm a mild clinical presentation among the first Omicron cases detected in France and highlight the importance for the national COVID-19 surveillance system to quickly detect and adapt to the emergence of a new variant