The selection of cases by the Public Prosecutor's Office in Chile

This paper aims to study the effectiveness of the legality principle in the Chilean system. To this end, it recreates the different models used by the four Regional Prosecutor's Offices in the Metropolitan Region to select and filter cases. In this regard, the paper analyzes how the Public Prosecutor's Office works at three different levels or categories when selecting cases that are likely to be investigated: arrest for in flagrante delicto, type of crime, and pre-classification. The paper shows how the criteria of efficiency and prosecutorial effectiveness by the Public Prosecutor's Office is applied and, in the end, influences the future of a case.