Law is an integral part of society. To maintain proper balance in society suitable laws must be at place. Law helps to identify harmful activities and provides appropriate measures to combat with the situation occurring from misconduct of laws and legislations. The prime concern of law practices is to make sure that there is peace in society. Every country is having certain laws and legislations which help the country to provide the countrymen with a safe and sound environment. In order to maintain peace within a nation, it is mandatory to have well-structured law enforcements so that major to minor offences can be handled accordingly. Law is the backbone of any country as it provides the country with proper system. With appropriate law enforcements at place, any country can maintain internal peace which in turn will boost their overall growth. The judiciary system enables a smooth and lawful environment within a country so that the country can be flourished in every possible way. Law and order are essential to ensure the overall well-being of the countrymen, resulting into harmony. Any kind of breach of law is dealt with proper methods set by the judiciary system. The type of punishment is chosen in accordance to the severity of the offence done. There are different types of law for various sectors. One of the major dimensions of law is criminal justice. This report is entirely based on criminal justice and its various aspects, which include economic, political and social contexts. Also, different theoretical frameworks are reflected accordingly. All the related factors are analysed and evaluated to gain deeper understanding regarding the subject matter.
Criminal justice is one of the major segments of law and order. Every country is having suitable laws and legislations at place to deal with criminal offences. Criminal justice provides a country with appropriate methods to curb the criminal acts happening within the country. The criminal law revolves around different types of heinous crimes. In order to maintain proper flow of law and order in a country, it is necessary to have a set of effective laws at place. When an individual commits a crime which can be breach of a law or not complying with certain laws and regulations, that individual becomes a target of criminal law. Criminal law is a set of well-defined laws which states suitable methods that should be taken against particular criminal acts. Criminal justice ensures that criminals should be penalised or punished in accordance to the severity of their crime. This particular segment of law helps a nation to reduce the overall crime rate occurring in that country. With properly formulated set of criminal law, any country can establish internal peace and attain a respectful position in relevant global rankings. Criminal law is a segment where criminal offences are handled with primary motive of reducing the crime rate in a country.
Extreme level of criminal offences can lead to lifetime imprisonment, and in worst cases, death sentence. Multiple criminal offences conducted at once can increase the severity of the crime as well as the punishment. There are different types of criminal offences, and there are penalties set for each of them in accordance to their severity. The criminal law differs from country to country. In United Kingdom, there is also a well-framed set of criminal law which helps the country to combat with criminal offences happening within the country. Criminal law not only includes proper penalties for the offenders, but also comprises of identification of a crime and reporting the same. Whenever an individual is suspected of committing a crime, proper evidences are required to prove the criminal offences done. Afterwards, it is the duty of the judiciary system of the respective country to inspect the reliability of the proofs submitted. Also, the judiciary system analyses the collected data and tallies the same with the information gathered from the accused. If the accused is found guilty, that individual is penalised as per as the criminal law.
Taking proper actions against the accused is not the sole responsibility of the criminal law. It also needs to be checked that not a single innocent person is penalised in this process. Legal proceedings regarding criminal offences include a number of innocent people. It is the duty of the judiciary system to ensure that the legal proceedings are carried out with high level of accuracy and reliable proofs are produced so that no innocent person wrongfully faces penalties. It is highly necessary that the data used in legal proceedings are authentic and trustworthy to enable justice for the ones involved in the case. Inaccurate follow-ups leading to wrongful punishment of an innocent person makes the law ineffective and the benefits of establishing criminal laws become null. A judiciary system and the ones involved in it are entitled to provide justice by identifying the true culprit. Criminal offences are varied and can range from minor to major types of crimes. Citizens are also required to keep an eye on the society and events happening around them so that they can spot a potential crime and report about it in their nearest police station.
There are two ways through which criminal offence can be conducted; physically and mentally.
We can imagine of a world where the law gets its requisite way only when the people altogether try to quit and forswear regarding the criminal conducts. As accepted by the majority of the masses, one of the major and vital functions of the criminal justice law is to provide and deliver the requisite punishment that is justified enough. Also, there do exists some individuals to consider this to be the sole functions to be performed by the criminal justice laws and this may be referred to be as the punitive view. According to this view the rules of the that are set for the evidences and the criminal procedures, facilitates much regarding the imposition of the justified punishment, although there also remains the risk regarding the unjustified punishment within some acceptable boundaries. This also believes for the fact that the rules that are set regarding the substantive criminal law may provide for the fair warnings to the offenders regarding the fact that they might be punished. As per this view, it is not just sufficient to make a specific case, rather the fact is that, the case must comprise of the justified punishment that are imposed by the criminal court.
Also the other view that has been referred to as the curial view focuses on calling the suspected offenders for accounting into the criminal courts and arrange for the criminal trials at the centre. In this view, the prospect regarding the conviction and the punishment brings about the defendants under pressure for the purpose of offering an adequate and distinct account. The defenders belonging to the curial view brings about the argument that the criminal proceedings calls for the intrinsic value in the moment while the defendants offer accounts regarding themselves concerning that they do have certain reasons to offer in front of the criminal courts. This view supports for the fact that the connections that do exists in between the trial and punishment are not simply instrumental.
Another group also do exists that conceives the criminal law as a device regarding the community and finds it only as a mean for ensuring the fact that the community actually receives what is expected from the wrongdoers within the society and that may be referred to as the communitarian view. Those who support for this communitarian view, at times faces certain difficulties due to the fact that they are always not aware official control regarding the reach of the criminal proceedings and just take the criminal proceedings for granted.
There might also exist another group of people who are of the view that the basic functions that are performed by the criminal law is regarding preventing the criminal wrongdoing within the society and may be referred to as the preventive view. But those who are the defenders of this specific view certainly must not emphasize on the fact that they must enact whatever provide them the highest protection and prevention in the matters that are related to the criminal justice law.
Other than that there also might be the existence of another group that holds for a mixed view that comes upon the combination of all the views that are considered above. A manner by which one can emphasize on this view is by the means of distinguishing between the primary and the secondary functions that are performed by the criminal justice laws. While the primary functions concerns every body else as equal and have the majority of the reasons that calls for the law to fulfil them, there the secondary functions comprises of those when we have the reasons that we want the law to fulfil in the situations where that actually fails regarding the fulfilment of the primary functions. In this regards, the ceteris paribus is that the individuals do have the numerous reasons and explanations for the inclusion of the criminal law so that there can exist a world that is free from the occurrence any sort of wrong doings like that of theft, robbery, crime, murder, etc. Upon the failure of attaining such a world there would be enough reasons that can bring about the criminal justice laws for taking into account the acts that are performed by the murderers, thieves etc. And also punish them who indeed do not have enough evidences that they can actually offer regarding their self-defence.
In this context, the argument that can be introduced here is that the very manner in which the slaves actually do depend on their masters, in the exactly similar manner the general individuals are also dependant on one another when there is no specific framework regarding the legal rights of an individual. In the absence of such a legal framework, just in the very manner by which the masters at the distinct instances prove their slaves to be wrong, irrelevant of how well the slaves treat their masters, the individuals will also be very much eager to prove each other wrong and there will remain no peace within the society. For the purpose of avoiding such situations it is simply not sufficient to have the rights mentioned in a piece of paper, rather that calls for sufficient assurance regarding the fact that these rights are respected by one and all individuals who exists within the community and the society. Thus that initiates for the requirement of a mechanism that can take for the requisite steps upon the wilful violation of the rights of an individual and this is where we desperately require for the criminal laws and the value of the same lies regarding providing and giving us what we actually need.
Thus while we are considering the functional level, then that refers to what we find from the mixed view and also the matter related to the fulfilment of both the functions becomes the same and thus as an individual, we are enabled to cease ourselves from the master slave relationship and start to exist within the society as the independent individuals.
For a specific example regarding the discussion that is made in the present section, we may consider the R v Kennedy (No 2) [2007] UKHL 38 where Kennedy happened to prepare for syringe to be used by the victim, the one who attempted for injecting the same to himself and finally died due to an overdose of the drug. Very much like many previous cases in this context, the result of this case was also that Kennedy (defendant) was convicted regarding the unlawful act of manslaughter. Also the court that we are considering to be the units that can offer for the justice regarding the human rights ruled the fact that in the instances where the drug dealers provides for the drugs, and the victims attempts to inject the same and that later accounts for their death, then that in no manner consider the drug dealer to be guilty regarding the unlawful act manslaughter due to the fact that the chain regarding the causation of the mishap has broken. This emphasizes on the fact that the courts really tend to provide for the justice to the criminal activities in a manner that can prevent the defendants who have enough evidences for proving oneself innocent in the court of justice.
Identification and critical analysis of the specific political, social and economic context within which the Criminal Justice Law
Like every other genres of law, the criminal justice law within the UK is also viewed in context of the distinct political, social, and even economical aspects within which the same operates. There are no specific genre of law that operates in the vacuum, it is also very much vital to recognize the facts regarding the emergence of the criminal justice law, the factors that may have an influence regarding the development of the same and the manner in which the same might indirectly or even directly affect the members present within a society. The distinct aspects that we will consider here in the present task regarding the criminal justice law are the:
As mentioned within the previous sector, the criminal justice law tend to have a control or even influence the behaviour of the entire society is basically the wide reflection of the social, political, and economic concerns that do prevail within the specific nation whether in a periodical basis or an ongoing day-to-day regular basis.
A society that adopts for the policy that enhances the practices regarding the tolerance regarding the usage of the drugs will be readily expected to pass for the laws that will allow the possession and the selling of distinct drugs, and also the corps of that society will be refrained fro arresting such people who are found with the possession of the drugs that is tolerated within that society.
Considering the economical aspect that is very much effective and associated with the performance of the crime as that will solely be the very crucial factor that can give rise for the distinct types of crimes to be performed within the entire society.
The recent developments that are made by the UK regarding all the three distinct aspects have become recognizable regarding the understanding of the entire picture of the environment of the nation and also the threats and opportunities that do lie within the present environment.
In this context, although presently the nation has a tensed relationship with that of the EU, but again, the political stability within the nation is strong, stable, and enhanced enough with the bilateral ties with many other distinct nations and that enhances the chances of the performance of the requisite criminal law practices within the nation where till date the framework regarding the constitutional monarchy is followed and still the Prime Minister is the head of the government and the Monarch is the head of the respective states.
Also the nation can readily be considered to be an economically stable nation and counts to be as a developed nation, where like many other developing nations, the manufacturing sector have been declining accompanied by the rise and enhancement of the service sector and that makes the nation quite stable on the economic basis to effectively include and practice for the criminal justice law within the nation for the betterment of the society and availing a safe and secured environment that is free from any hazardous crime and encroachment of the stated human rights.
Apart from that, while the social factor for the nation is considered, then there are people belonging to the distinct social backgrounds may be counted to be present within the nation. Yet, the educational level is much higher within the nation pointing towards the fact that the individuals within the nation are much aware of the activities that might be associated with the criminal justice law. There are three distinct laws within the entire nation of UK, the English law applicable for the England and Wales, the Scottish law, and the Northern Ireland law. The Supreme Courts functions to be the highest court regarding the civil and criminal cases of the Wales and England, and also the Northern Ireland and only the civil cases belonging to the Scots law. However, as per the crime statistics report, it was found that the civil and the criminal crimes being performed within the England and Wales have declined by a major fraction (approximately 50%) in the recent years as a result of the strict legal systems that are being presently followed.
Application of relevant theoretical concepts concerning various policy and other considerations to the analysis of Criminal Justice Law.
In respect to the criminology, the theories can aid much regarding the understanding of the workings of criminal justice system within a nation and the major actors that are associated with the entire system and will enhance the transparent understanding of the crime and the criminal justice. Although the fact is that the entire genre of crime is a very complex procedure that remains changing with the time and also there are no specific or listed causes that can be associated with the performance of the crime. Although each of the theories that are considered in this discussion have their own boons and limitations, yet they seek to explain the basic causes that may enhance the crime within the nation and can be kept controlled upon the imposiion of the regular checks.
The theories that are considered in the present task may be categorized to belong to two distinct domains:
While the sociological approach suggests for the fact that the crime performed is shaped by the factors that are external to an individual and are much related to the experiences that they do have from their family, neighbourhood, and even their peer groups. The biological perspective on the other hand assumes the fact that there are certain individuals who are born criminals and their very psychology is entirely distinct from that of the individuals who are non-criminals. The very popular proponent of the biological criminal theory is Cesare Lombroso. The work done by him are although fallen out of the favour, yet the theories belonging to this perspective have been developing and basically focuses on the:
However, the theories of crime in the sociological perspective comprises of the:
Other theories are the Strain theory that emphasizes that the social structures and the cultural values put pressure upon the individuals for the commitment of the crime.
The Subcultural theory points towards the difference in the structures of the society for the initiation of criminal activities. The Social control theory although addresses for the crime but also explain the fact why the distinct individuals obey the laws. The Rational choice theory considers the distinct individuals to be distinct factors and thus they make their own choices and these choices also comprises of the choices of committing the crime.
Conclusion
Thus we can conclude from the task that there are distinct types of crimes and that have their specific causes. Thus this entire task have emphasized on the distinct facets that are considered regarding the practice of the criminal justice law within the UK.
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