19 - Ghana Flashcards
1960s - 1980s…
Militarisation of Ghana
Population…
Ghana is 28,153,090 as of Tuesday, September 13, 2016, based on the latest United Nations estimates.
Legal System…
Common Law and Customary Law
Criminal Justice System…
The government controls the prison, police & courts
Crime Categorisation…
Crime against person
Crime against property
Public order offences
Age of Criminal Responsibility…
12 years, S. 26 Criminal Code 1960
Nothing is a crime which is done by a person under twelve (12) years of age.
Prison population total and rate of imprisonment…
13,063: 49 per 100,000) as at January 2017
Punishment for capital offences…
Death Penalty
Crime Rates…
Moderate
Crime Index 2016…
48
Safety Index 2016…
52
Caution…
According to Appiahene-Gyamfi (1999: 410-11), crime statistics and criminal justice information in Ghana are not kept in any organized, systematic, or uniform way. In terms of acquisition and preservation of crime data and information, Ghana is perhaps no different from most developing countries.
None of Ghana’s criminal justice agencies have reliable and comprehensive crime statistics. It appears that no individual or agency, private or government, is interested in criminal justice data and information for research and policy planning.
Furthermore, the lack of qualified personnel and inadequate resources hamper efforts to collect and store crime data.
Consequently, criminal justice statistics and information are produced and kept by the various criminal justice agencies, even though in rough-and-tumble manner.
The offenses processed by native courts and arbitrators, a large volume of which could be classified as summary under the Criminal Code, are neither recorded nor reported to any official agency.
