1.3 Describe models of criminal justice

Question 1

Describe the crime control model

Answer 1

Goal: Crime is a threat to people’s freedom so the goal is to supress crime by catching and punishing offenders and deterring and preventing further crime
Start: Presumption of guilt ; trusting the police to identify those guilty through investigations
Those identified are then sent through the ‘conveyer built’ that speedily prosecutes, convicts and punishes them
It argues that the small amount of people wrongly convicted is worth paying for to convict everyone guilty

Question 2

Describe the due process model

Answer 2

Goal: To protect those oppressed from the state
Start: Innocent until proven guilty
* It has less faith in the police’s ability to conduct satisfactory investigations, setting due process rules that investigations must follow to safeguard defendants’ rights e.g. legal representation, questioning rules
* Different to the conveyer belt, procedures protecting rights of defendants form a necessary obstacle courses for prosecutors to overcome before conviction
* The model argues those acquitted on technicalities is a lesser evil than convicting the innocent
* The model emphasises the rights of the accused rather than the victims

Question 3

List the 2 theoretical links to the Crime control model

Answer 3

Right realism - Right wing, conservative approach to justice, e.g. Zero tolerance policing strategies
Functionalism - Links with Durkheim’s functionalism theory that punishment reinforces moral boundaries

Question 4

List the 2 theoretical links to due process model

Answer 4

Labelling theory - Opposes the police harassing groups seen as ‘typical criminals’ by offering protection against this by setting requirements for the police to not exceed their power and follow lawful procedures
Left realism - Aligns with left realist views in that police should not be militarised and should not discriminate and act lawfully in order to fight crime effectively

Question 5

List Rules favouring due process
/4

Answer 5

1 Suspect’s right to know why they are being arrested
2 The right to appeal a conviction or sentence
3 The right to legal representation
4 The right to a jury trial

Question 6

List rules favouring crime control
/4

Answer 6

1 Police rights to stop, search and arrest
2 Jury trials only for serious cases, magistrates are more likely to convict
3 Public interest certificates may allow the prosecution to avoid disclosing evidence
4 The court may draw negative conclusions if a defendant remains silent

Question 7

List and describe 3 miscarriages of justice

Answer 7

1 Colin Stagg - The police were convinced he was guilty of murdering Rachel Nickell, and tried to use a ‘honey trap’ to trick him into confessing - entrapment
2 - Sally Clark - Wrongly jailed for the murder of her two sons as a home office pathologist failed to disclose relevant information to her defence
3 - The Birmingham 6 were wrongly convicted of 21 murders after the police fabricated evidence against them and used violence to extract confessions, which was deemed admissible in court