criminology unit 4

• What are the 2 types of processes for law making?

  - government process

  - judicial process
• What is parliament?


  - The UK is a parliamentary democracy, meaning most of the laws are made by passing acts of parliament. Laws made by the parliament are also known as statues or legislation.

  - Parliament is made up of 3 parts: Monarch (King or Queen gives the Royal Asset), The house of lords and the house of commons.
• What is the house of lords (the lords)?

  - Members of the house of lords are known as the peers. There are around 800 peers, with only 92 hereditary peers. In the past, all peers used to be passed down from father to son. The rest of the peers cannot pass their position down to children. There are also 26 Church of England bishops and archbishops.

  - The main job of the lords is to act as a double check on new laws.
• What is the house of commons (the commons)?

  - Most important part of parliament as it is made up of the elected representatives of the people (the 650 members of parliament or MPs).

  - Each MP is elected at a general election to represent a constituency (A geographical area of the country).
• What is the government?

  - The governments role is to run the country. This is different to the Parliament, as the parliament represent people.

  - Government is formed by the political party, with the majority of the 650 MPs. The prime minister is the leader of the majority party.

  - Most proposals of new laws come from the government. A proposal for a new law is called a bill.
• What is a Bill?

  - A proposal for a new law is called a bill.

  - Bills must be agreed by both houses of parliament and receive the royal assent before they can become laws.
• What is green paper?

  - this happens before a bill is put through parliament. A green paper is an initial report to cause public discussion of the subject. It may include questions for interested individuals and organizations to respond to.
• What is white paper?


  - after the consultation, the government publishes a white paper, which is a document which sets out the detailed plans for legislation. There is often a draft version of the bill that they intent to put before parliament.
• What is the parliamentary stages of a bill?

  1) first reading

  2) second reading

  3) the commitee stage

  4) the report stage

  5) third reading

  6) the lords

  7) Royal assent.
• What is the first reading?

  - when the government first introduces the bill to the commons. It is a formal announcement of the bill and is followed by a vote to move onto the next stage.
• What is the second reading?

  - main principles are considered, and is debated by the house of commons, and a vote is taken out. As government has the support of the majority of the MPs, they will usually win the vote, but majority need to approve of it. If it passes this, it moves onto the committee stage.
• What is the committee stage?

  - a detailed examination of the bill, from a small committee made up of MPs from different parties. Committee will report back to the whole house and often propose amendments to the bill.
• What is the report stage?

  - gives MPs an opportunity to consider the committee's report and to debate and vote on any amendments they wish to make onto the bill. This may be spread onto multiple days.
• What is the third reading?

  - The final chance for the commons to debate the Bill's contents. No amendments are allowed. The house will either vote to pass or reject the bill.
• What is the lords on the parliamentary stages of bill?

  - After third reading, the bill goes to the house of lords where it will go through the same stages as in the commons. If lords have amended the bill, it must be returned to the commons so that the MPs can decide the accept or reject the amendments made by the lords. The house of commons has the final say as it is made up of the people's elected representatives.
• What is royal assent?

  - once bill has passed both houses of parliament, it goes to the monarch for signing, known as the royal assent. It's the monarch's agreement to make the bill into an act of parliament or law and is a formality.

  - new law then comes into act immediately, unless act specifies it will apply from a later date (also known as a commencement order).
• What are the 2 processes involved when the judge makes a new law?

  - judicial precedent

  - statutory interpretation
• What is known as when the judge makes a new law?

  - judicial process of law making
• What is judicial precedent?


  - The source of law where past decisions of the judges create law for future judges to follow. This means judges treat similar cases in the same way, creating a fair and consistent legal system, and creates a single set of laws common to the whole country, meaning the system is known as common law.
• What is the example case for judicial precedent?

  - Donoghue vs Stevenson 1932: a decomposed snail was found in a customers ginger beer and the customer fell ill. The manufacturer was ordered to pay compensation.

  - Daniels vs R White and sons 1938: Bottles of lemonade contained carbolic acid, causing illness. The precedent of Stevenson was applied and the manufacturer was ordered to pay compensation.
• What is the court hierarchy (judicial precedent)?

  - the legal system has a hierarchy of courts, with the supreme court and the top and the magistrates court at the bottom. A decision taken in a case by a higher court automatically creates a binding precedent for all lower courts. They have to follow this when dealing with similar cases.
• What are the 2 exemptions to precedent?

  1) distinguishing

  2) Overruling
• What is distinguishing precedent?

  1) distinguishing: precedent from an earlier case is only followed in a similar or present case if the legal principles involved is the same and if the facts are similar for both cases. if they are not, the judge does not have to follow the precedent - the courts decides the decision of the previous case is not applicable to the current case due to differences in facts or legal issues.
• What is overruling precedent?


  - where a court higher up the hierarchy states that a legal decision in an earlier case is wrong and overturns it.
• What is statutory interpretation?


  - judges can also make law by the way they interpret the statues or acts of parliament

  - a statute is a written law and so judges need to interpret the meaning of its words and apply them to the case that they are judging.

  - they have 3 main interpretation rules to help them do this.
• What are the 3 interpretation rules used by judges in statutory interpretation?

  1) the literal rule

  2) the golden rule

  3) the mischief rule
• What is the literal rule?

  - judges should use everyday, ordinary meaning of the words in a statute, as if it would appear in a dictionary - the literal meaning of the words in a statute.

  - however, an issue is that the one word can have different meanings. For example, in the R v Maginnis, a case involving illegal drugs, different judges found different meanings of the word supply.
• What is the Golden Rule?


  - allows for the court to modify the literal meaning to avoid absurd results that could occur if the literal rule was followed.

  - For example, under the Official Secretes Act, it was an offence to obstruct Her Majesty's forces "in the vicinity of" ( in the area close to) a prohibited place, such as a navel place. In the case of Adler v George, Adler argued he did not break the law because he was not literally in the vicinity of a prohibited place, but actually inside of it. The court applied the golden rule and Adler got convicted.
• What is the mischief rule?


  - allows the court to enforce what the statute was intended to achieve rather than what the words actually say.

  - for example, the Licensing Act makes it an offence to be drunk and in charge of a carriage. In Corkery vs Carpenter, Crokery was found guilty even though he had been in charge of a bicycle. The court used the mischief rule in order to convict him.
• AC1.2


  Describe the criminal justice system in Wales and England
• What is the criminal justice system?

  made up of a number of interconnected agencies and organisations. It can be divided into:

  - law creation and administration: the passing of the criminal laws by Parliament and the running of the justice system by government departments.

  - law enforcement: by the police

  - the courts: Decide the outcome of the criminal case

  - punishment of convicted offenders: by the prisons and probation services
• What are the main agencies of the criminal justice system?

  1) law creation

  2) the police

  3) the crown prosecution service

  4) HM courts and tribunals service

  5) the courts

  6) HM prison and probation service
• What is law creation as an agency of the criminal justice system?

  parliaments and judges make the laws dealing with crime:

  - parliament passes acts (legislation or statute law)

  - judges create law by setting judicial precedents that other courts then must follow, and by interpreting the meaning of statutes.

  
  

  - two government departments oversee most of the justice system and are responsible for its smooth running; the ministry of justice and the home office
• What is the police as an agency of the criminal justice system?

  - responsible for enforcing the criminal law. They investigate crime, collect evidence, and arrest, detain and question suspects.

  - In minor cases, they may issue a caution or fixed penalty notice, but in almost all other cases ,they will send the files to the CPS to decide whether to prosecute. There are 43 regional police forces in England and Wales.
• What is the crown prosecution service (CPS) as an agency of the criminal justice system?


  an independent prosecution service for England and Wales dealing with about half a million cases a year.

  - CPS advices police in their investigation about lines of enquiry and what evidence is required to build a case

  - assesses the evidence the police submit to it and decide weather to prosecute and what the charges will be

  - decisions are based on applying the full code test to the case

  - prepares and presents prosecution case in court
• what is the HM courts and tribunal service as an agency of the criminal justice system?


  - responsible for the administration of courts and tribunals in England and Wales
• What is the courts as an agency of the criminal justice system?


  - If a suspect is charged, they go to courts.

  - 2 main courts: the magistrates court and the crown courts. All offences start at the magistrates court, but more serious ones go to the crown court.

  - the magistrates court deals with less serious offences. There is no jury present.

  - A crown court has both a jury and a judge present. The judge gives directions of how the trial is run and the jury decides whether the defendant is guilty or not.
• What is HM prison and probation services as an agency of the criminal justice system?

  It carries out the sentences given to offenders by the courts.

  - HM prison services supervises offenders in custody

  - the national probation service supervises offenders who are serving their sentence in the community, such as prisoners who have been released on licence to serve part of their sentence outside prison.

  
  

  - HM prison and probation services also work to rehabilitate offenders to help them live a crime free life.
• Who does the police have relationships with in the criminal justice system?

  - the courts

  - the CPS

  - HM prison and probation service

  - voluntary organisations
• How does the police have a relationship with the courts?

  - the police give evidence as prosecution witnesses in court, provide protection for vulnerable witnesses, hold defendants in police cells and transport them to and from prison.