Theory Of Criminal Flashcards
Fair labelling
This means that crimes should be defined to reflect their wrongfulness and severity. It is essential in securing public confidence in the law and a sense of justice.
Fair labeling is important in two ways:
1) Description - the crime must be properly described, include all the necessary elements, and be clear and communicated
2) Differentiation - the crime must be clearly distinguished from other crimes, particularly in relation to fault and social condemnation (eg the difference between murder and manslaughter)
Maximum certainty
Legal certainty means that decisions are made according to legal rules. This means providing citizens with the ability p align their behaviour with the laws, and protect them from arbitrary use of state power.
Correspondence
The correspondence principle means that the result which the defendant intends or foresees should match the result which actually occurs.
A defendant should not be held liable for an act unless they intended to do it, or knowingly ran the risk of it.
The Law Commission criticized the current laws of ABH and GBH in that they don’t conform to the ‘correspondence principle’.
No retrospective liability
No statute is to have retrospective effect unless it says so.
The rationale is that Parliament is presumed to not alter the law applicable to past events/cases in a manner which is unfair to those concerned in them. This is unless the contrary intention appears.
E.g. Criminal Justice Act 2003 - allows the retrial of people acquitted of murder if there is ‘new, compelling, reliable, and sustainable evidence’ that the acquitted person really is guilty
R v Dobson and Norris - the defendants were allowed to be retried, even though the murder occurred in 1993, and they had been acquitted in 1996
Burden of proof - rules
A defendant is innocent until proven guilty.
This means that it is the prosecution’s responsibility to provide evidence in court that the defendant had both AR and MR of the offence they have been charged with.
Standard of proof - rules
The prosecution must provide evidence of the defendant’s guilt ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’
Meaning that the jury or magistrates (depends on the severity of offence) should only convict if they are satisfied with the evidence, so that they are sure of the defendant’s guilt.
