Heightened crime rates across Europe have led to increased workloads for police, prosecution and courts systems and resources have not risen in line. Each country has coped with this mismatch of workload and resources in its own way and in most cases the practices and powers of each of the agencies involved have needed to be changed as a reaction to this.

This book describes the results of a six-nation study of how criminal justice agencies in England and Wales, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden have reacted to high crime rates and punitiveness. It shows how various solutions have been found, involving diversion of cases from courts, increases in financial penalties imposed by police or prosecutors without full court hearings and the introduction in some countries of "administrative offences".

The book reveals the fast-moving and far reaching changes that are now in process involving wide-scale changes to the way justice is being delivered throughout the EU.

Varying Structures and Convergent Trends in Prosecution within Europe.- The Function of Public Prosecution within the Criminal Justice System.- The Power to Decide Prosecutorial Control, Diversion and Punishment in European Criminal Justice Systems Today.- Dealing with Various Offence Types in Different Criminal Justice Systems Case Examples.- The Prosecution Service Function within the Criminal Justice System.- The Prosecution Service Function within the English Criminal Justice System.- The Prosecution Service Function within the French Criminal Justice System.- The Prosecution Service Function within the German Criminal Justice System.- The Prosecution Service Function within the Dutch Criminal Justice System.- The Prosecution Service Function within the Polish Criminal Justice System.- The Prosecution Service Function within the Swedish Criminal Justice System.