1 - Criminal Justice System and Penal System? Flashcards
What is the definition of the Criminal Justice System?
The Criminal Justice System refers to the institutions responding officially to the commission of offences (such as the police, prosecution authorities, the courts)
What is the definition of the Penal System?
The Penal System refers to the system into which an offender enters once he/she has been sentenced by a court
Cavadino and Dignan, 2002
Arguably, one of the salient features of the English penal and criminal justice ‘systems’ is their highly unsystematic nature, with different agencies working in relative isolation from each other, exercising wide and unaccountable discretionary powers, and subject to no overall co-ordination or strategic control. Some writers have even described criminal justice as a ‘non-system’… In any event, we do have penal and criminal justice ‘systems’ in the sense that they are composed of different agencies which are interdependent: their activities intimately affect each other and they need to be studied
within this context of interdependency
Contradiction…
This definition suggests that there are formal
structures of communication
However evidence suggests that this may
not be the case
Evidence…
Soham Murders Inquiry
Holly Wells & Jessica Chapman
Sir Michael Bichard chaired an independent Inquiry arising from the Soham murders. Found that there had been a lack of appropriate structures and organisation between agencies to facilitate the communication of information.
Evidence…
Victoria Climbie Inquiry
Victoria Climbie
Lord Laming came up with similar results
Evidence…
Harold Shipman Inquiry
Dame Janet Smith looked at initial Police investigation which failed to uncover Harold Shipman’s crimes, death certification and the investigation of deaths by Coroners and the regulation of controlled drugs in the community. Found similar results.
Evidence…
Zahid Mubarek Inquiry
Looked at his murder in Feltham YOI and found poor information sharing between prisons
Evidence…
However, Hillsborough Disaster
In 2002 the Independent Panel report concluded that attempts had been made by the authorities to conceal what happened, including the alteration by police of 116 statements relating to the disaster
Raine and Willson argue that even if we have no ‘system’ it may be a good thing…
A fragmented criminal justice system might, in fact, be a more effective one… [since it] seems likely that the adoption of systems thinking enhances the possibility of the various professionals…colluding to ensure a smooth passage of cases through the system at the expense of attention to individual and unique aspects of due process (Raine and Willson 1993:63).
So they argue that actually our fragmented CJS helps to keep checks on the system and ensure independence and impartiality and helps to avoid miscarriages of justice.
