The Dutch Criminal Justice System

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If the police bring the case to the public prosecutor, it is also authorized to issue a punishment order to the defendant instead of summoning him and bringing the case to court. this punishment order will gradually replace the consensual settlement penalty/transaction offered in the past by the public prosecutor to the defendant. The purpose of this is to reduce the number of offences that remain without punishment.
A different procedure is issued if the case is classified as crime. The Dutch definition of crime includes violent crimes, like serious offences against life and serious offences against property. This category also includes some traffic offences, like drunk-driving, hit and run, and drug crimes. In these crimes, the public prosecutor can propose a settlement as well as issue a punishment order. If the accused refuses to accept it or he does not agree with the punishment order, the case goes to the court.
The courts of first instance consist of one judge for less severe offences (which has the authority to impose custodial sentences up to one year) and of three judges for more serious cases. Most of the time, the trials are carried out with no interrogation of witnesses and the judges base their decision primarily on the written dossiers prepared by the police during the investigation phase.
In case of conviction, sanctions imposed range from fines and community service to imprisonment. All can be set conditionally as well as unconditionally. Sanctions can be punishments, which must be proportionate, or measures (such as medical treatment), which serve a more rehabilitative goal and do not need to be proportionate. Determinate custodial sentence varies between one day and 20 years. Sentence length depends on the seve...

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...ch Juvenile Justice. Journal Of Ethnicity In Criminal Justice, 7(2), 85-106. doi:10.1080/15377930902929182
Mexico Country Profile. (2013). Mexico Country Profile, 1-70.
Ribeiro, L. (2011). How Does the Criminal Justice System Operate from an Empirical Point of View? An Analysis of the Netherlands Case. European Journal On Criminal Policy & Research, 17(4), 267-284. doi:10.1007/s10610-010-9131-x.
Ringnalda, A., & Kool, R. (2012). The prosecution of bias crime in the Netherlands and the problem of net-widening: fundamental limits to criminal liability. Crime, Law & Social Change, 58(1), 53-74. doi:10.1007/s10611-012-9369-y van de Riet, M., Bernasco, W., & van der Laan, P. (2007). Between protection and repression: a short history of juvenile policing in the Netherlands. International Journal Of Police Science & Management, 9(3), 214-225. doi:10.1350/ijps.2007.9.3.214

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