France: Harsher Laws, but Moderation in Sentencing

France has experienced a moderate but steady rise in punitiveness since the early 2000s. Prosecutors, increasingly dominant, dispose of cases through alternative procedures (e.g., composition pénale, penal orders, plea bargaining), bypassing traditional trials. These tools, intended to streamline justice, have increased the number of people under criminal justice system control, without reducing prison populations. The “rate of solved cases,” a bureaucratic metric, pressures prosecutors to avoid dismissals. Single-judge trials, fast-track procedures, and police-led sanctions have proliferated. These shifts prioritize speed over fairness, eroding procedural protections and individualization. Legislation has criminalized more behaviors (initially domestic and sexual violence, more recently traffic and drug offenses) and made punishments for recidivists harsher. In practice, trial judges often do not apply the harsher laws, and judges overseeing implementation of sentences use community penalties such as electronic monitoring and probation to avoid prison overcrowding. France’s system is Janus-faced, simultaneously moderate (via judicial discretion) and harsh (via prosecutorial powers and net widening).