Magistrates (A03) Flashcards
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ADVANTAGES OF MAGISTRATES
- good cross section of society
- local knowledge
- cost
- training has improved
- very few appeals against decisions
- increase in public confidence
good cross section of society
- wider range of society compared to judges as 53% women mag to 22% judges and 11% ethnic to 5%
- means magistrates can relate to the defendant more than white old men
local knowledge
- good local knowledge as they must live or work in the local justice area - know of events and opinions of area which judge wouldnt have
- ensures local justice is passed down = fair and just system
cost
work on a voluntary basis so use of magistrates is cheaper than judges as only paid for expenses
estimated to cost extra 100mil a year to pay magistrates, would need sufficiently qualifid judges.
training has improved
training is more detailed than it used to be - closely monitered by MCJD
new mag all follow the same syllabus which means consistency esp in important areas. clerk is available for help.
few appeals against magistrates descisions
despite not having legal qual. decisions are good
around 11k appeals each year and less than half of these are succesful shows mag are doing good job.
increases public confidence
society as a whole has confidence in use of magistrates - justice is achieved.
public involvement = democracy as not just state , can rpresent society and their opinions whilst sentencing
DISADVANTAGES OF MAGISTRATES
arent true representation of society not legally qualified inconsistency in sentencing seen 2 b prosecution biased lack of public confidence
not true representation of society
most mag reffered to as “Middle age, middle class and middle minded” voluntary aspect means most are retired, most older than judges
most come from proffesional classes which means have rich knowledge and over 50 which suggests typically conservative views.
not legally qualified
no legal qual. so may simply rely on the clerk which if used too often defeats the point of having them
lack of legal knowledge mean they rely heavily on guidelines which are open to interp.
inconsistency in sentencing
vries from bench to bench - known as geographical lottery, could be to do w inconsistency from region to region
eg in some areas mag are seen to be 4x more likely to send defendnts to prison than other areas eg northhampshire and derbyshire
seen to be prosecution biased
tend to agree w police and case hardened so more likely to convict. get to kniw police and judgement lawyers so could b biased
mag is 80% convition rate as opposed to 40% in the crown court
lack of public confidence
morgan and russel found that ppl working in courts have more cofidence in district judges. public are largely unaware of what mag do.
but district judges believe that magistrates reflect the community better and more likely to sympathise w/ D
