A prosecutor is the person who looks into and tries the criminal cases in his state and district. Prosecutors can be either public or private, male or female. When public, these people have been appointed to prosecute any and all offences, as the public prosecutor is considered the attorney general. When private, the prosecutor has the ability to prosecute as a private citizen, hence the term "citizen's arrest". A private prosecutor can also work for those who have experience a crime, and bring a criminal case to trial for them. In the United States, the public prosecutor is the main legal representative for the state that he lives in, and has a responsibility toward the criminal trials of the area he covers. The typical public prosecutor is a young lawyer who works for the United States government, and are assigned criminal cases on an availability basis.