• @Kellamity
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    20 days ago

    In the UK, you can’t decide whether to ‘press charges’ or not, the decision is the CPS’s.

    But in practice, saying you aren’t interested in pursuing a conviction often ends it, because:

    1 - the prosecution must be ‘in the public good’ which is undermined if the victim isn’t interested

    2 - a lot of the time the testimony and cooperation of the victim is key to the prosecution case

    3 - the system is horribly underfunded so if they can justify dropping it they will

    • @[email protected]
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      220 days ago

      CPS is? City Prosecutor … ??

      as to 1) - that’s judged differently in Germany - in part to protect victims of domestic violence who will often “change their mind and not want to” press charges after filing an initial report.

      1. in that case, yes - but again, if it’s a criminal offense, the victim has an obligation to testify, even if they have no interest

      2. I have no idea how the funding of our judicial branch looks like atm

    • @[email protected]
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      120 days ago

      The CPS only does this for England and Wales not the whole of the UK. In Scotland the procurator fiscal prosecutes crimes and in Northern Ireland it is the Public Prosecution Service