Crime Control Model

• • Seek to deal with criminal cases quickly and efficiently. Seeking a conviction at any cost.
  • Aim is to punish criminals and stop them committing further crimes.
  • Focus on 'Zero Tolerance' approach. Links to Right Realism theory.
  • Focus on protecting the rights of the victims than the defendant.
  • Argue police should have enhanced powers to ensure a conviction is achieved.
  • Doesn't address the causes of crime or that crime can be deterred through detection and conviction.
• • Introduction of 'bad character' evidence and previous convictions information for courts to consider when deciding a verdict.
  • Removal of the 'double jeopardy' rule for murder and other serious offences.
  • Extended pre-charge detention time for terrorist activities.
  • E.g. Colin Stagg.
• The Crime Control Model (often called the conveyor belt)

  • Guilt of the accused is implied in order to protect society from violence and danger
  • Prevention or reduction crime is its overriding aim
  • It prioritises punishment and a sanction in order to prevent and deter people from committing further crimes
  • Trust is placed in the hands of police and authorities to carry out investigations properly
  • Pro-police powers and enhanced powers
  • Looks for dealing with criminal cases quickly
• Examples of how the Crime Control Model links to the CJS

  • Police have legislative powers (under PACE) to stop, search, arrest and detain suspects on reasonable grounds and with reasonable suspicion
  • In suspected terrorist arrests the police can detain for longer than the usual 24 hr period (up to 14 days)
  • The abolishment of the double jeopardy rue means that a person can be tried for the same offence twice.
  • Evidence of past bad character can be permitted by the court
  • routes of appeal can be complicated and not always allowed by the superior courts
• Right Realism

  It is argued that the Crime Control Model to criminal justice is conservative and right wing. This means that a right realist may prioritise order rather than justice through the belief that the crime has been caused by a lack of self-control. A right realist would favour many zero tolerance strategies if it meant that crime was suppressed.
• Functionalism

  Durkheim's functionalist theory links in with the Crime Control Model as he argues that crime and punishment needs to happen in order to bring about legal change. The idea of a justice system that punishes, means that society is able to demonstrate its disapproval which in turn can lead to reform making the justice system improved.
• • The repression of crime should be the most important function on criminal justice because order is a necessary condition for a free society.
  • Criminal justice should concentrate on vindicating victims' right rather than on protecting defendants' right.
  • Police powers should be expanded to make it easier to investigate, arrest, search, seize and convict.
  • Legal technicalities that handcuff the police should be eliminated.
• • The criminal justice process should operate like a assembly-line/conveyor belt, moving cases swiftly along towards their disposition.
  • If the police make an arrest and a prosecutor files criminal charges, the accused should be presumed guilty because the fact-finding of the police and prosecutors is highly reliable.
• • Goal is to catch, convict and punish offenders
  • Focus is crime control; repression of criminal conduct
  • 'Conveyor belt' process cases quickly and efficiently in order to get a conviction
  • Assumes that the person arrested and charged is probably guilty. Relies on informal, non-adjudicative (non-legal) fact finding - primarily by the police and prosecutors
  • Quick processing of offenders to achieve justice for victims and society as a whole