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10 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Authority and theoretical underpinnings |
- legitimacy/authority related to the entitlement to be obeyed - modern society answer to the issue of 'the right to punish - public interest and equal justice - contract theory - each individual gives up some liberties and, in return, is protected from others who have their liberties restricted as well - consensus about the rules required for peaceful co-existence |
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Criminal justice and sentencing |
- key function of CJS = bring offenders before courts for adjudication, sentencing upon finding guilty - various aims - retribution - proportional payback for offence - restitution - compensation to victim or society - deterrence - specialised - individual desistance - general - people deterred from crime - incapacitation - prevents crime by limiting access to victims - rehabilitation - behavioural change restitution + restitution = ethical formalism deterrence + rehabilitation = utilitarian |
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Structure and function |
1. police 2. courts 3. corrections - little communication or planning between the three - australia has 9 CJS (each state and territory + the commonwealth) |
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Police |
- responsible for detection and prevention of crime, maintenance of public order and provision of emergency assistance 1. patrol officers (first response, immediate aid, preserve crime scenes, make arrests) 2. detectives (follow-up investigations, initiate prosecutions) 3. specialist squads |
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Criminal courts |
- adjudicate cases, hear evidence, make decisions on guilt or innocence, determine punishments 1. hierarchy of courts (depending on severity of case) 2. specialist courts |
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Corrective services |
- administer sentences, prevent escapes from custody, administer rehabilitation programs, make decisions on early release 1. custodial corrections - maintains prisoners in secure facilities 2. community corrections manages offenders on orders undertaken outside prisons (community service, probation, parole) |
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Ancillary agents |
- public prosecutors (mid point between police and courts) - legal defenders - independent welfare and advocacy groups |
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Problems and issues |
- public confidence - system coordination - jurisdictional fragmentation - sentencing - lenient sentencing causes outrage - aspects that undermind fairness - parole - good behaviour bonds - concurrent sentences - suspended sentences - statutes of limitations - suppressing juvenile offender names - guilty person released without conviction - justice delayed - pressure to speed up cases can result in miscarriage of justice - productivity and the attrition of crime - poor outcomes in law enforcement - enormous gap between number of offences and number of offenders brought to justice (4.3% of crimes result in conviction, 0.1% result in custodial sentence) |
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Myths of criminal justice |
1. Police work - essentially sedentary and administrative - police patrol fails to deter most crimes, detectives fail to solve most crimes 2. Equal justice - prosecution determined by sociological variables (race, class) of suspect/victim and not by principle of equal justice - capacity to pay for bail; access to and quality of legal representation; plea bargaining; adversarial pressure on prosecutors and defence to hide evidence; jury bias; judge bias 3. Punishment - prison has little deterrent on crime 4. CJS - high rates of incarceration - increasingly punitive in last few decades 5. Capital punishment - no evidence death penalty reduces crime rate - irreversible |
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Conclusion |
- criminal justice system contributes to a degree of crime containment and brings some offenders to justice - barely penetrates the true crime problem - need to take politics out of policy making - give more attention to needs of groups who are over-represented in the CJS |
