  The powers and permissions mentioned so far help \(D\)’s accusers put together their case against \(D\). By the time cases reach the courts those accusers are typically state officials (or those to whom the state has delegated official power). Some legal systems do make space for private prosecutions. But such prosecutions can be discontinued or taken over by state officials (and their delegates). Those officials (and delegates) can also continue proceedings in the face of private opposition, even when the opposition comes from those wronged by \(D\). In this way, the state exercises a form of control over criminal proceedings that is absent from legal proceedings of other kinds (Marshall and Duff 1998).