The principal actors in the preliminary stages of criminal proceedings included the judicial police whose function was to record and investigate crime; the State prosecutor, whose task it was to decide on the instigation of penal proceedings; and the examining magistrate, who gathered evidence and established charges against the defendant. The evolution of French criminal law over the past 150 years is discussed in terms of three phenomena: the growing role played by the State prosecutor in the instituting of proceedings, the rise in the proportion of cases directed by the State prosecutor and parallel decline in the number of cases sent before the judiciary; and the decrease in referrals from State prosecutor to examining magistrate. The development of police machinery, linked to the ascendancy of State control and to political instability, has had repercussions on the running of the judicial system. In short, the State prosecutor had acquired a leading role in the judicial system, but continues to rely heavily on the police. 35 notes and 63 references