AC 1.3 DESCRIBE MODELS OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE

• Crime Control Model:

  • Views crime as a threat to people's freedom
  • Focuses on the suppression of crime
  • Prioritizes catching and punishing offenders, deterring and preventing crime
  • Starts from the presumption of guilt
  • Trusts police to identify those who are probably guilty
  • Advocates for police to be free from legal technicalities that prevent them from investigating crime
  • Believes that convicting a large number of guilty people justifies occasionally convicting a few innocent individuals
  • Emphasizes protecting the rights of society and victims from crime
• Crime control theories

  Right Realism – conservative approach, favours giving the police greater powers to investigate crime and zero tolerance policing policies 

  Functionalism – Punishment reinforces society's model boundaries; main function of justice is to punish the guilty and strengthen social cohesion
• DUE PROCESS MODEL: 

  • Power of the state is the greatest threat to the individual's freedom  
  • Aim to protect the accused from oppression  
  • Starts with a presumption of innocence 
  • Innocent until proven guilty 
  • Has less faith in the police’s ability to conduct satisfactory investigations  
  • The guilty can sometimes get let off free on a ‘technicality’ as it makes it harder to prosecutor  
  • Model argues it is a lesser evil than convicting the innocent  
  • Emphasises the rights of the accused individual rather than those of the victim or society 
• Due process theories

  Labelling Theory – model aims to stop police form oppressing people, requires the police follow lawful procedures as police may be tempted to harass groups typically labelled as ‘criminals’ 

  Left Realism – argues oppressive ‘militaristic policing’ of poorer areas triggers confrontations and makes residents unwilling to assist, police must act in a lawful and non-discriminatory manner 
• Governing rules related to crime control model

  • Polices right to stop, search and question 
  • May draw negative conclusions if the defendant remains silent 
  • Extended police detention is allowed for questioning on suspicion of indictable offences  
  • Extended period before lawyer is allowed  
  • Jury trials are only for serious cases  
  • Appeal rights are not always automatic  
  • Changes to the double jeopardy law allows for second prosecution  
  • Evidence of bad character is permitted 
• Governing rules related to Due process model

  • Suspects right to know why they are being arrested 
  • Right to remain silent  
  • Right to not be detained indefinitely without charge 
  • Right to legal representation  
  • Right to trial by a jury of one's peers 
  • Right to appeal  
  • Right not to be re-tried for the same offence once acquitted  
  • Admissibility of evidence in court e.g., hearsay, entrapment  
  • Prosecutions duty to disclose evidence against the defendant before the trial 
• Case examples illustrating issues in the legal system:

  • Colin Stagg: honeytrap used to trick him into admitting to a crime
  • Sally Clarke: wrongfully jailed for murder due to failure to disclose relevant information to her defence lawyers
  • The Birmingham Six: wrongly convicted of 21 murders as police fabricated evidence and used violence to obtain confessions; judge wrongfully deemed the confessions admissible
  • The Case of Bingham Justices: defendant's evidence contradicted a police officer in a speeding case; the chairman stated 'my principle in such cases has always been to believe the police officer'
• The court doesn't always operate according to the principles of the due process model