A corpus of 1,001 criminal cases from the public prosecutor's office of the Netherlands was analyzed to determine whether judicial or extrajudicial factors were responsible for the overrepresentation of the unemployed in summonses as compared to dismissals & out-of-court fines, the other two alternatives available to the public prosecutor. Such overrepresentation in courts has been quantitatively demonstrated in several previous studies, which concluded that a selective judicial policy was applied by the public prosecutor's office discriminating against the unemployed. However, comparison of quantitative & % values for battering, property destruction, & theft does not show significant differences in the treatment of the two groups if the analysis takes into account the overall prevalence of cases involving the unemployed that come before the public prosecutor. The variables affecting the prosecutor's decision making with respect to fine vs summons are studied, & it is concluded that there is no biased treatment. High recidivism of unemployed defendants & frequent noncompliance with the transactional offer of paying a fine play an important part in their overrepresentation in court. 6 Tables, 11 References. Z. Dubiel
