enal code and criminal procedures adopted in 1968
assign to the law the role of regulator of social behavior. The law has
become, he said, not simply an instrument stipulating the rights and
obligations of the citizen; its important social role provides a firm
foundation for society's behavior. Other spokesmen have amplified this
theme. They emphasize that, once an individual understands the law and
its objectives, he appreciates the fact that individual freedom is
related to the freedom of others and that a free individual is bound to
respect accepted ideological concepts and accepted moral and judicial
standards.

Public prosecutors have a broad range of responsibility in the judicial
and penal systems. Their duties are not confined to handling the
prosecution of indicted individuals who have been brought to trial. As
the appointed protectors of the civil liberties of the people, their
duties extend from crime prevention to rehabilitation of criminals
serving prison sentences. They are responsible for seeing that crimes
are detected and investigated and that penal action is taken against the
criminal. They also see to it that the criminal is held in preventive
detention, if necessary, before trial. After sentencing, the prosecutors
have access to any place in which the criminal might be detained and
pass on the legalities of the detention and the conditions within the
penal institution. If a sentence either does not involve imprisonment
(but is, for example, in the form of a fine, restriction, or extra work)
or is suspended, the prosecutors ensure that the terms of the sentence
are carried out.

Public prosecutors are monitored by the Office of the Prosecutor General
at the national level. The prosecutor general (attorney general) assures
that the work of local public prosecutors is consistent throughout the
country, both in the choice of cases to pursue and in the diligence with
which the prosecution is undertaken (see ch. 8).

Crime

Statistics released to the public do not include crime rates. Reliable
data that would include petty crime would, in any event, be difficult to
obtain because many minor infractions of law and all but the more
serious of personal disputes are not termed crimes and are tried before
the hundreds of local judicial commissions.

A rough assessment of the overall crime situation can, however, be made
from the concern expressed in the many speeches and articles published
by government