Current Events > How does pressing charges even work?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Say i punch you in the face but since you dont want to press charges they just let me go?

I never understood this.....

well it's up to the state if they drop the charges or not, but if you don't wanna cooperate with the investigation they drop the charges because it's a waste of time, unless it was a really bad crime

Most of the time, the cops can choose to press charges regardless of the situation. For example, if a guy beats his wife and she tries to not press charges, the cops should have the ability to override that and charge the guy.

An individual person doesn't press charges. That's like the biggest misnomer in TV cop shows. It's up to the prosecutor whether there is enough evidence to actually file criminal charges with with court.