Governments may decide not to prosecute those guilty of offences because the offenders are tied to the present administration. Alternately, prosecution may be delayed, held in camera, or acquittal assured, or penalties reduced to wrist-slapping. Others may become targets of judicial action because they are opponents of incumbent regimes. Another instance of the maladministration of justice is in lower court discrimination against proponents of politically unpopular ideologies such as the peace movement, women's liberation, and environmentalism.
In 1996 in France the French justice minister was accused of interfering in the judicial process against the mayor of Paris for his son's use of a city-owned apartment.