33

How should scholars analyze sentencing in France and Germany? This paper does not propose a comparison of two criminal systems, but studies the decisions of French and German prosecutors and their motivations. On the basis of a questionnaire completed by the prosecutors, this paper analyzes the representations of criminal sanctions and the assessments of the prosecutors about fictitious cases with different characteristics (social class of the accused, penal characteristics, etc.). The results show that French and German prosecutors make similar decisions and have similar perceptions despite differences between the two criminal justice systems.