The Public Prosecution Service and the Structuring of Sentencing – The Nordic Case of Denmark

Abstract

This chapter contributes an original description of a very different structuring arrangement of sentencing institutionalized through the Danish prosecution service since the 1990s. The prosecution service has attained a new and bigger role and new techniques add significantly to the structuring of sentencing. The techniques of structuring sentencing are: preparatory works to statutory amendments, prosecution guidelines and prosecution driven court practice database. The public prosecution service is at the very centre of the dramatic increase in structuring of sentencing. The legal tradition outlines four ways in which the prosecution service institutionalizes the described techniques of structuring sentencing: By taking part in the drafting of preparatory works to statutory amendments, By using its quasi-judicial role to presenting facts and law to the judicial courts, By controlling knowledge on normal sentencing levels through its hierarchical organizational structure and By following up on judicial sentencing practice on behalf of the legislature.