Criminology unit 4

• Government processes for making laws

  1. Green Paper (collection of proposals through consultation)

  2. White Paper (firm proposals for new law)

  3. Bill enters either House and passes through several stages (First Reading, Second Reading, Committee Stage)

  4. Stages repeated in the other House

  5. Bill may be sent back and forth between Houses with suggested amendments (ping pong)

  6. Final stage is Royal Assent (monarch gives approval, Bill becomes an Act)
• Judicial processes


  1. Judicial precedent (following previous legal decisions of similar nature within court hierarchy)

  2. Statutory interpretation (judge deciding meaning of word/phrase in Act)
• Judicial precedent


  Methods of avoidance, such as distinguishing, may produce new legal decisions. Where there is no existing decision, a judge would create law by an original precedent
• Judicial precedent


  • Donoghue v Stevenson, 1932
• Statutory interpretation


  • Whiteley v Chappell, 1868 (meaning of "entitled to vote" had to be considered)
• Relationships and organisation of the criminal justice system

  • Prison Service and the courts
  • Prison Service and the police
  • Prisons and lawyers
  • Prison and the judiciary
  • Prison Service and the probation service
• Prison Service


  • To keep those sentenced to prison in custody, helping them lead law-abiding and useful lives, both while they are in prison and after they are released
• Police


  • Investigates crimes prior to court hearings, including interviewing witnesses and collecting relevant evidence
  • Ensures charged suspect is placed before the court where bail is refused
  • Attends court to give evidence in criminal cases, and may attend to seek search and arrest warrants
  • Arrests and places before court those released from prison on licence/parole who are thought to be in breach of conditions
  • Liaises with prison services when prisoner is to be released and requires further monitoring
• CPS


  • Advises police during early stages of investigation
  • Reviews cases submitted by police for prosecution, prepares cases for court and presents them
  • Considers whether there is sufficient evidence and if public interest requires prosecution
  • Works closely with police service
  • Prepares for and attends court hearings, carries out advocacy
  • Contacts defence lawyers, may negotiate aspects like plea bargaining
  • Appears in appeal cases
  • Discloses evidence to defence to enable them to prepare
• Probation


  • Produces pre-sentence reports on defendants
  • Attends MAPPA meetings to assess and report on offender's risk
  • Attends court to provide reports about offenders
  • Liaises with prison when offender is about to be released, provides reports to help determine release and conditions
• Courts


  • Pass custodial sentences and ensure defendant is taken to prison
  • Deal with breach of community/probation orders, may impose further sentencing
  • Liaise with prison service to ensure defendant on remand appears before court
  • May require prison to produce offender via video link rather than in person
• Due process model


  • Most important function of criminal justice is to provide due process, or fundamental fairness under the law
  • Criminal justice should concentrate on defendants' rights, not victims' rights
  • Focuses on presumption of innocence and necessity to produce fairness
  • Police power must be limited to prevent official oppression, and rights of individuals should prevent wrongful convictions
  • Thorough investigation of cases with legislative obstacles to protect rights of innocent
  • Right to appeal a decision in a criminal case is a feature
• Crime control model


  • Criminal justice should concentrate on promoting victims' rights rather than protecting defendants' rights
  • Police powers should be expanded to make it easier to investigate, arrest, search, seize, and convict
  • Legal technicalities that restrict the police should be eliminated
  • Repression of crime is the most important function of criminal justice because order is a necessary condition for a free society
  • Criminal justice process should operate like an assembly line conveyor belt, moving cases swiftly toward disposition
  • If police make an arrest and prosecutor files charges, the accused should be presumed guilty because fact-finding of police and prosecutors is highly reliable
• Internal forms of social control

  • Conscience
  • Upbringing
  • Family traditions
  • Values and norms
  • Tradition
  • Family and social milieu
  • Religious teachings
  • Conscience and personal sense of morality
• Internal social control


  • Regulating one's own behaviour in accordance with accepted forms
  • Allows for internalisation of social rules and morality
• External forms of social control

  • Coercion (use of force, physical or non-violent)
  • Fear of punishment (deterrence)
  • Individual deterrence
  • General deterrence
• External social control


  • Exercised by people and organisations specifically empowered to enforce conformity to society's laws
  • Police, courts, National Probation Service, and HM Prison Service are the most obvious agents
• The term social control refers to the techniques and strategies for preventing criminal behaviour in any society
• Enforced detention is overseen by HM Prison Service
• Deterrence


  Punishment is used as a threat to deter people from offending
• Key assumptions of deterrence

  • Individual deterrence
  • General deterrence
• The courts will impose sentences to prevent people from committing further crimes. For example a suspended sentence or a conditional discharge
• The Ministry of Justice introduces sentencing policies to use coercion and the fear of punishment to control crime. For example mandatory minimums such as life for murder, 7 years for 3rd drug offence and 3 years for 3rd burglary
• Agents of external social control

  • Police Service
  • Courts
  • National Probation Service
  • HM Prison Service
• Social control


  Techniques and strategies for preventing criminal behaviour in any society
• The most visible form of external social control is exercised by people and organisations specifically empowered to enforce conformity to society's law. This can include prisons
• Prison


  • Provides coercion or force to achieve the desired result of incarceration
  • Acts as a deterrent, as some people fear it
• Aspects of deterrence


  • Individual
  • General
• It is the court system that determines the decision in a criminal case. This may be the magistrates, who determine both liability and impose a punishment, or – in the Crown Court – a jury which decides liability, and a judge who imposes the sentence
• Court process


  Acts as a deterrent due to the consequences of punishment and also the shame and embarrassment of attending court
• The court tries to persuade or compel people to abide by the law or conform to the punishment given
• Courts


  An external form of social control due to the fear of punishment and consequences such as loss of liberty or financial punishment
• There may be reference to a control theory to explain why people do not commit crime, for example Reckless or Hirschi
• Control theory (Walter C. Reckless)

  A combination of internal psychological containments and external social containments prevents people from deviating from social norms
• Control theory (Travis Hirschi)


  The importance of the individual's bond to society in determining conforming behaviour
• Retribution


  Idea based on an offender's behaviour being deserving of punishment, does not seek to alter future behaviour
• If a person's offending has adversely affected the public or if the public requires protection then a prisoner must go to prison
• Retribution contains an element of revenge, in that society and the victim are being avenged for the wrong done
• The maximum prison sentence was increased from 5 to 10 years for causing death by dangerous driving in 1993, and in the Criminal Justice Act 2003 it was increased again to 14 years
• Rehabilitation


  A forward-looking aim with a hope that the offender's behaviour will be altered and they will not re-offend