AC 1.3

• What are the two models of criminal justice? 


  • Crime control model
  • Due process model
• What is the crime control model?

  • Suppression of crimes
  • Presumption of guilt
  • Trust the police are able to identify those who are probably guilty through investigations
  • Police should be free from unnecessary legal technicalities that prevent them from investigation
  • Conveyor belt system that speedily prosecutes, convicts and punishes the accused
  • If a few innocent people are convicted by mistake, that is the price to pay for convicting a large number of people
  • Emphasises the rights of society and victims to be protected from crime, rather than the rights of suspects
  • Doesn't address the causes of crime
• Examples of the crime control model

  • Removal of the double jeopardy rules
  • Allowing bad character evidence and previous convictions in criminal cases
  • Key focus is to secure a conviction at all costs - Colin Stagg
• What theories does the crime control model link to?

  • Right realism:
  • Model is a right wing, conservative approach or justice
  • Favours giving the police greater powers to investigate and suppress crime
  • Functionalism:
  • Has links to Durkheim's functionalist theory that punishment reinforces societies moral boundaries
  • Main function of justice is to punish the guilty, it enables society to express moral outrage and strengthen social cohesion
• What is the due process model?

  • Power of the state is the greatest threat to individuals freedom
  • Goal of the model is to protect the accused from oppression by the state
  • Presumption of innocence and protection of individuals' rights
  • Has less faith in the polices' ability to conduct satisfactory investigations - incompetence, dishonesty, etc
  • Guilty can sometimes go free on a 'technicality' - models argue this is the lesser evil than convicting the innocent
  • Emphasises the rights of the accused individual rather than those of the victim
• Examples of the due process model

  • Introduction of PACE (Police and Criminal Evidence act 1984)
  • Recording interviews with suspects
  • Sion Jenkins - given the right to appeal against his conviction, allowing him to walk free
• What theories are linked to the due process model?

  • Labelling Theory:
  • Liberal approach
  • Aims to stop state agencies from oppressing people
  • Model offers protection from police acting unlawfully to gather evidence, and to not exceed their powers
  • Left Realism:
  • Argues that oppressive 'militarist policing' of poor areas triggers confrontations and makes residents unwilling to assist the police
  • Police must follow due process by acting lawfully and non-discriminatory if they want to fight crime effectively
• What are some rules that govern the working justice system?

  • Illegally obtained evidence may be ruled inadmissible in court, this supports the due process model
  • The judge has the power to admit illegally obtained evidence if they believe it will help to establish the truth. This supports the crime control model since it may lead to a conviction.
• What are some examples of miscarriages of justice due to agents of the state acting unlawfully?

  • Colin Stagg
  • Sally Clark
  • The Birmingham Six
  • The West Midlands Crime Squad
  • The case of the Bingham Justices (1974)
• What happened to Colin Stagg?

  • He was a victim of attempted entrapment, following the murder of Rachel Nickell
  • Police lacked evidence against him but were convinced it was him - they tried to use the 'honey trap' method to trick him into a confession
• What happened to Sally Clark?

  • She was wrongly jailed for the murder of her two baby sons
  • Was partly due to the Home Office pathologist and prosecution witness, Alan Williams, failing to disclose relevant information to her defence lawyers
• What happened to The Birmingham Six

  • They were wrongly convicted of 21 murders after the police fabricated evidence against them, deprived them of sleep and food, and used violence and threats to force confessions
  • The judge then wrongly deemed the confessions admissible as evidence, whilst excluding the defence evidence
  • The prosecution presented dubious and unreliable forensics as evidence against the six
• What happened in The West Midlands Crime Squad?

  It was responsible for over 100 criminal cases involving malpractice by its officers. This included perjury, assaulting prisoners, fabricating confessions and planting incriminating evidence
• What happened in the case of the Bingham Justices

  • It involved bias by a magistrate
  • When a defendants evidence contradicted that of a police officer in a speeding case, the chairman of the magistrates said 'my principle in such cases has always been to believe the police officer'