ABSTRACT
Hegemony is the capacity to fashion a field according to this world view as well as capacity to require it. The chapter explores their hidden power through the discourse of a prosecuting elite. It traces the contours of prosecution thinking with appreciation of their enormous responsibility. The chapter shows that environment by styling prosecution leaders as mandarins. A mandarin denotes a high official or bureaucrat in imperial China. This image of mandarin presents prosecution administrators as "just one cog in the process". One body of work describes prosecution forms, functions and authority. Another has examined the outcomes that flow from prosecution decisions and the effects on criminal justice and criminal policy. These especially focus on the exercise of prosecution discretion regarding different offences, characteristics of the accused or victim, and criminal justice decision-making more generally. The institutions of criminal justice have an extraordinary degree of power and authority over ordinary citizens.
