Agencies in the Criminal Justice System

Agencies in the Criminal Justice SystemThe common wind up binding the agencies of the felon legal expert system is centred upon annoyance and the sustain of crime. (Garland 2001 5-8). It piece of tail be argued that the agencies of venomous jurist including, the practice of law, the Crown Prosecution go (CPS), the philanders, the prison service and the probation service tout ensemble have separate and diaphanousive functions provided operate towards a common overarching goal crime control. (Maguire et al 2007 139-141). It is the social system and organisation of turn justice that is characterised by fragmentation, differential shares and aims amongst institutions forming parts of the poisonous justice system, coupled with the absence of a single Governmental surgical incision charged with responsibility for criminal justice policy and its implementation which accounts for a differential of functions all aimed towards the common goal of crime control. (McConville and Wilson 2002 5). It is argued by McConville and Wilson (2002) that find out what constitutes an institution of the criminal justice system in any res state-supporteda lead be complex due to the nature and operation of a system entailing great multiplicity. (Ibid). However, Sanders et al (2010) divulge that the internality agencies of the criminal justice system in England and Wales shag be identified as follows(1) The law, which piece of tail be divided farther into three distinct groupings. Firstly the topical anesthetic branches of law of nature throughout England and Wales. Secondly the national police bodies such as the Organised Crime Agency and the British Transport Police. Thirdly fussyist agency watchdogs such as the Health and Safety Executive which counselling on occurrence types of criminality.(2) The CPS which is primarily responsible for deciding whether human faces on the watch by the police should proceed to prosecution.(3) The romances which can be divided further into lower motor lodges and higher courts. The lower courts be composed of the magistrates courts where all criminal offences will start off. The higher courts are composed of the Crown Court which deal specifically with more serious forms of offences. The division between the magistrates court and the Crown Court will be by the initial sort of the offence as either being summary giving undivided jurisdiction to the magistrates court or of indict open offences giving exclusive jurisdiction to the Crown Court.(4) The Prison Service which is charged with dealings with offenders convicted and sentence to a custodial sentence. Their role deep down criminal justice is arguable dual, firstly to deprive dangerous offenders of their familiarity acting as a preventive to offenders and backly to rehabilitate offenders back to society.(5) The Probation Service which is charged with dealing with offenders culmination out of prison and their aftercare with integr ation into society. (Sanders et al 2010 2-6).In order to find out whether these agencies have both common and classifiable functions they will be discussed in detail below and the paper will then draw conclusions on their role and aims in spite of appearance criminal justice.The PolicePolicing in England and Wales is decentralised to local police forces which operate through the country in approximately 43 forces. The powers provided to the police can be characterised by the right to stop and attempt people and their property, the right to arrest a suspect, the right to detain a suspect at the police service for interrogation, the right to move in curtilage and the right to compile reports for the CPS to exit them to determine whether a case should proceed to trial. (Sanders et al 2010). The goody afforded to police officers in exercising their public duty is a characteristic of the nature of how criminal laws operate, in that discretion underpins the operation of the police officers role inwardly criminal justice. (Clarkson et al 1994 6-8). The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 ( stair) provide the main statutory role model for the operation of the police in conducting criminal investigations. The Act is supplemented with Codes of Practice which make out goods standards for policing in conducting their business of espial and investigating crime . PACE 1984 allows the police powers of stop and search, arrest, detention and the collection of consequence. The role and function of the police can be identified as the primary role in managing and dealing with crime. (Sanders 1986 303). They will be the first agency of the criminal justice system which come into contact with suspected offenders. Their role as distinct from the early(a) agencies will primarily be based around detecting and investigating crime in addition to the collection of vital order as proof of the commission of the offence. (Ibid). The common function to all early(a) agencies o f criminal justice is to manage and control crime.The Crown Prosecution ServiceOne of the CPSs roles within the criminal justice system is to exercise a public interest in determining which cases should be prosecuted through the courts. (Moody and Tombs 1982 44-52). It is the control mechanism within criminal justice to filter out cases which can be considered inappropriate to proceed to the next stage within the criminal justice system. It is the value judgements made by the CPS that allows an assessment to be made on the strength of the evidence collected by the police and the public interest in bringing the case which can be identified as being the distinctive functions of the CPS. It is therefore possible to identify that there is a linkage between the first agency of policing to the second agency of prosecuting where there is an inter-dependency for success in controlling crime. The CPS will only be able to bring cases which have compelling evidence to succeed in the prosecutio n. Therefore the distinctive role the prosecution attains within the criminal justice system is that of deciding which cases to allow proceed to court based upon the work of the police in collecting evidence.The CourtsThe courts occupy a special terrain within the criminal justice system in that they allow the facilitation of evidence to be tried and tested to a standard of beyond all reasonable doubt. (McConville 1994 228). They occupy the neutral position of being able to afford both sides equality to put their case in a bonnie and just manner. The secondary role is focused very practically on determining a case, deciding which side present the strongest arguments on the evidence. The terminal role is centred upon sentencing an offender in accordance of rights with the law and sombreness of the offence before the court where a conviction is founded on the evidence. The core function of the courts is to facilitate the presentation of evidence in a fair and balanced way, to adj udicate according to the laws of England and Wales and finally to sentence in accordance with sentencing principles. It is arguable a very special and distinctive position within criminal justice in that it allows the full operation of the law in practice in determining an offenders culpability for a charged offence. However, it is excessively possible to establish that the courts service have the common function of dealing with crime and controlling crime through its sentencing regimes.The Prison ServiceThe prison service deals exclusively with offenders convicted and sentenced to a custodial sentence. Their role within criminal justice is to facilitate a judicial decision to deprive an offenders liberty in order to fulfil the sentence of a court. The role is distinctive because it is primarily directed to controlling and managing the offenders behaviour throughout their sentence. However, it is common to the other agencies within criminal justice in that it facilitates crime cont rol and contributes to an offenders reclamation into society.The Probation ServiceThe probation service will also occupy a special position within criminal justice in that they will fail involved with offenders during sentencing at the trial stage but also when an offender is released from prison in their integration back into society. Therefore they provide the attain transition support for offenders allowing their integration back into society to live lives without crime. mop upAlthough there are other criminal justice agencies such as the Criminal Defence Service, the Criminal Cases Review Commission and the Criminal Injuries wages Authority, the focus of this paper has been primarily directed at the core agencies within criminal justice dealing with the progression of an offender through the system. It is specifiable that the very nature of the fragmentation of crime and criminal justice necessitates an range of agencies to deal with the specific nature of criminal offendi ng. Each of these agencies occupies a specific space within criminal justice in dealing with crime and in contributing to the overall control and management of crime. Further, it is clear that each(prenominal) agency has a distinctive role in that the police are the initial gatekeepers of criminal justice by deciding which cases to investigate and how they collect evidence. Similarly the prosecution have a specific role in deciding to prosecute and executing a prosecution. The courts also occupy a special function of delivering justice and facilitating a trial of an offender. It is clear that all of the agencies of the criminal justice have very specific roles and functions which serve particular goals and aims of criminal justice at particular points when dealing with offenders. Each role contributes to the overall aim of managing and controlling crime in society. In final conclusion it can be argued that each agency within criminal justice have distinctive but yet common goals w ithin the criminal justice system.