The role of the judiciary in criminal justice

9 9CRIMINAL JUSTICE CRIMINAL JUSTICE CRIMINAL JUSTICE Name of the Student Name of the University Author Note Criminal justice offers justice to people who have committed crimes. The primary goal of criminal justice is to prevent the convict from committing other crimes and provides moral support to the victims and their family.

Running head: CRIMINAL JUSTICE
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Criminal justice offers justice to people who have committed crimes. The primary
goal of criminal justice is to prevent the convict from committing other crimes and provides
moral support to the victims and their family. The central institution of criminal justice is
lawyers, police and prosecution. Police must enforce the law, protect the people, prevent
crime and punish the violators of the law. The criminal justice works towards delivering
justice to the victims irrespective of their gender, age, caste and religion. It is a lengthy
procedure that involves trails, justification of evidence and finally, justice. However, often
the criminal justice system is biased and takes time to deliver the punishment to convicts who
are responsible for the crime. This happens when the convict comes from an influential
background. This is what happened in the case of Stephen Lawrence. The essay aims at
discussing the ethical and moral issues that were faced by the justice system while punishing
the criminals.
Stephen Lawrence belonged to a black family in London and was a victim of racial
discrimination. He was stabbed in April 1993 in an attack that was unprovoked in Eltham and
was murdered by a group of white men while he was waiting for a bus at the bus stand. What
followed next was a consistent battle for justice initiated by the family of Stephen who was
sure that their son was killed due to racism that prevailed in the society. Though the police
arrested five suspected after a few months of the murder, the charges were soon dropped
when the police said that the ID evidence of Duwayne (Stephen’s friend who was present
with him at the time of the incident) was unreliable. The murder unleashed a series of protests
and cry for justice that was received after a decade of the battle between Stephen’s parents
and the justice system. His mother demanded police reforms within the nation that was being
biased because Stephen came from a black family. The police were also accused of
institutional racism. Macpherson report required the recruitment of more black as well as
minority officers for the safety of these people. The murder brought to the surface the brutal

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reality of the society of Britain. It also showed the incompetence of the justice system as they
were initially biased. Had the victim’s parents not fought for the justice of their child the
convict would have never faced any punishment and the case would be regarded as other
unresolved cases in the records of the police.
The murder also showed the unwillingness of the police (another component of the
justice system) to find the convicts. Stephen’s mother accused the policemen who aggravated
her grief as well as uncertainty even after getting hold of the two convicts eighteen years ago.
The widespread murder of Stephen Lawrence, the racism involved behind the killing,
incompetence as well as corruption within the police and the trail after the killing completely
changed the role of police, law as well as politics. The murder very well demonstrates how
the criminal justice principles were not followed concerning Stephen’s death. It was because
of the pressure from the public that the police were forced to find the convict and present
them before the law. A decade long battle for justice uncovered severe mistakes that were
committed by the Metropolitan police that allowed the killers to move freely. Even before
and after the killing of Stephen, there have been racial killings across the globe.
According to Niven and Donnelly (2020), the criminal justice system in England
follows a system in which the magistrate hears opposing views of the case. The defence, as
well as the prosecution, can present their situation according to their plan while abiding by
the restrictions imposed on them. On the other hand, Fujita (2018), describes the criminal
justice system as semi-inquisitorial, where the judge too participates in preparing pieces of
evidence along with the police and dominates the trial process. The same process of
investigation was followed for the case of Stephen, where the judge had little role to play in
the forming of pieces of evidence. According to Wenzel and Okimoto (2016), retributive
justice is a theory that argues that whoever commits an act of crime deserves to be punished
by the institution of law and that the punishment should follow the proportion of harm that is

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caused to the victim. In this way, the criminal justice system will be able to maintain law and
order. The theory talks about the rational choice that is made by the criminal to satisfy their
needs as well as wants. The murderers made this sensible choice of Stephen who killed him
to satisfy their ego. On the other hand, Restorative justice according to Wachtel (2016), tries
to repair the harm caused by the crime. It offers an option of reconciliation with the victims.
The theory does not allow the victims to participate in the resolution instead provides the
offenders with the opportunity to make amendments. Furthermore, according to Kim (2018),
transformative theory incorporates a structure that examines the reason behind the crime,
inequality that prevails within the social, economic as well as political system. It considers
the system of criminal justice as unjust. According to this theory, the state perpetuates
injustice to people belonging to different colour, community, women and those who have a
disability. This injustice was seen in the case of Stephen who was murdered for coming from
a black family.
The criminal justice system that was prevailing at that time in the UK was unjust. Had
a black person murdered a white man, then the former would have been given immediate
punishment. But because a black man was killed by white people the justice was received
after a long time. Another instance of a black man named Oscar was killed in 2009 in the
New Year’s eve by the police. Without a cause, the police open shot Oscar in front of
everyone. The police were even being violent and cursing the group. Oscar’s killing once
again brought racial discrimination to the forefront. According to Pew Research, most of the
blacks are treated less fairly by the system of criminal justice than the whites. The blacks face
criminal charges quite often than the whites. The white police officers tend to be more
discriminate towards the blacks than towards the whites. A study conducted by Frank
Edwards, Hedwig Lee and Michael Esposito (2019), too found that black people were more
likely to be killed than the whites by the police.

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Though there has been much racist murder in the past the death of Stephen Lawrence
evoked questions regarding injustice, racism and cultural identity that prevailed in the British
society and initiated a process of institutional reflexivity that included the policies of the
government regarding the policies of racism within Britain. It was the role of media that the
case garnered so much popularity and widespread protests; it also brought about a moral
solidarity amongst people and their demand for a safer society. According to Mattoni (2016),
the above case challenged British society, issues of racism and elite public figures. The media
transformed the situation into a mediatised public crisis that provided options for cultural and
social change. The media played a crucial role in the criminal justice system of Stephen
murder case. A mediatised general crisis is also regarded as a society that is in action.
According to Cohen’s moral panic theory (2019), the media generates societal reaction
similar to Dayan and Katz’s theory of media events (2017). On the other hand, according to
Shu et al. (2017), media sometimes create issues in the criminal justice system by forming
people’s opinion on the specific case. They can instigate a section of the society against the
other by the content they show on the television.
Criminology consists of multiple theories to show why people commit crimes. These
theories are divided into three categories- classical, modern and postmodern. According to
Burke (2018) classical theory of criminology is where people have the free will to make a
rational choice of committing crimes. The consequences of the act should be a punishment
that is the latter should fit the crime. The classical theory states that severe crime should be
met with severe punishment. On the other hand, the modern theory of criminology, according
to Williams (2019) rejects the concept of free will that is responsible for criminal conduct. He
replaced moralising with a reason as well as empiricism. According to this theory, the idea
behind committing a crime was the result of circumstances that stood before the individual
and that people solely are not responsible for their actions. However, in the postmodern

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theory of criminology by Milovanovic (2018) rejects the modern concept of criminology that
is dependent on reason and rationality to understand the nature of the crime. According to
him, it was the emergence of racism, imperialism and sexism that gave rise to criminal
behaviour. By looking back to the chaos theory, the propagators of postmodern criminology
state that society is made up of chaos and fragmentation. Therefore to find out the reason
behind crime, one must consider the complexity of interactions of the individuals within the
prevailing culture, social structure and community.
According to Cowburn, Gelsthorpe and Wahidin (2016), the three main ethical issues
that are related to criminal justice is the role that is played by informed consent, how the
outcome is dependent on the research design and the requirement for confidentiality as well
as immunity. On the other hand, the British Society of Criminology by Bachman and
Paternoster (2017) does not impose an individual model of ethical practice instead it is an
outline for reference to encourage as well as support the reflective ethical practice in
criminological research. The ethics try to promote a responsible as well as informed decision
making. According to them, one must refrain from making any claims. The researchers
should be ethically obligated to preserve the data so that it cannot be used against the
participants in the legal proceedings. According to Millie and Das (2016), police officers
should reflect the integrity that is in their position. They should maintain a professional image
because they are always under public scrutiny and people look up to them for protection and
justice. However, nowadays, the police misuse their power, and the latter sometimes is
unjustified. This is what happened in Stephen’s case murder, where the police, instead of
getting justice for the victim, was trying to save the convicts as the latter was a white citizen.
The police officers were biased and racist while conducting the investigation.
Not only in Britain, the criminal justice in America too has not been fair with the
black race. The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson and other cases of unarmed youth of

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black origin were killed by the police that highlighted the media and the criminal justice
system in the US. The US justice system disproportionately treats people with a different
colour in a different way. Brown was shot several times before he fell to the ground. There
were peaceful as well as violent protests for the justice of Brown. The media and the people
sharply criticised the response of the police in dealing with the situation. There were military
responses by the police towards the protest. Pieces of evidence were tampered, and the report
that was drafted by the police was considered to be credible before the law. The criminal
justice system of the US concluded that Brown was shot because the police officer wanted to
defend himself (Everbach, Clark and Nisbett 2018). Even in the 1990s, it was found that the
whites sold and consumed drugs in the same way as people who belonged to other race and
ethnicity. However, it was blacks who were detained by the police on the charges of selling
drugs. According to Fineblit et al. (2017), the reports of the Equal Justice Initiative stated that
more killings of the blacks occurred in the US than of any other race. More than 80% of the
black people await execution for crimes that are not committed by them. This shows the
incompetence of the criminal justice system to give a fair trial to everyone. The System
Justification Theory by Gravett (2017) helps the audience to understand why people who are
harmed by the status quo do not protest against the justification system. According to Gravett
system justification can be used as a coping mechanism by the people who benefit as well as
those who are in a disadvantageous position due to the status quo promote positive instead of
the negative effect. It is therefore essential to understand how the blacks suffer quietly under
the regime of criminal justice and how they are hated amongst the whites. Similarly,
according to Tajfel’s (2018) concept of intergroup relations, he believes that members of a
particular group are always inclined to punish the members of another group even when the
consequences will be against the latter. Different groups of races have conflicting interests as
well as motivation while engaging in cross-cultural interactions. The Implicit Association

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Test helps the people to reveal the racial bias that is embedded within them, which is
precisely the opposite of the beliefs that people tend to follow. The intergroup relations helps
in understanding the disparity that is present in the system of criminal justice such as the
police, prosecutors and the judges.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was a book that also talked about the criminal
justice system and how it was unfair towards a black person. It is a story about Atticus, who
is an unconventional hero, lives his life according to his morals and conscience. The book
shows how he takes the case of the black person and defends him as he knows that the police
and the court have unjustly detained the latter. The story revolves around the court case and
how people start despising Atticus for defending a black person and going against his race
(Macaluso 2017). Lee tried to portray the US society that was prevailing at that time and
showed how a clear boundary existed between the whites and the blacks and how the jury
despite being convinced of the innocence of the black man gives him a death sentence to
maintain the superiority of the whites. The novel focuses on the fight between right and
wrong, justice and injustice, equality and inequality (Macaluso 2017). The book is filled with
multiple layers of meaning. The novel is steeped in racial as well as other prejudices. The
writing makes the readers question about their set of beliefs that they carry within them. The
murder of Stephen Lawrence was similar to the case that was presented in the book. Both
were victims of racism and were unable to meet justice. Stephen’s judgment came after
eighteen long years of a wait because his parents never gave up and fought for the rights of
his son.
The recent reform in the criminal justice system of UK states that there should be a
complete separation of judiciary from politics. They are also working towards improving the
case administration as well as compliance. Technology is being used to manage the files and
records more effectively and efficiently. Very few deny that one of the significant function of

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criminal law is to deliver justice to victims and give justified punishment to the convicts.
While at the same time, it helps in facilitating and considering the risk regarding unjustified
punishment. Prevention of crimes provides reassurance to the people. There are seven
principles of criminal law such as- legality, act, causation, news rea, harm, concurrence and
causation. According to Wells (2017), there are four theories of crime such as- rational
choice, biological positivism, psychological positivism and sociological positivism. These
theories help people to understand why a person commits a specific crime and whether the
act of criminality is a decision that was taken rationally or because of external circumstances.
According to the rational choice theory propagated by Cesare Becarria (2017), an Italian
Philosopher, explain the motivation of the offenders to commit a crime by evaluating the
benefits as well as consequences. The offender commits the offence by planning it from
beforehand. On the other hand, sociological positivism propagated by lambert Adolphe and
Andre-Michel (2017), states that individuals commit crimes due to the offenders'
environment such as family, education level and peer groups. The theory states that exposure
to social disorganisation leads people to criminal behaviour. It was the rational choice that
urged the murderers of Stephen to attack him. They thought that being at a racial superiority,
they would not have to face the consequences and would be left free. However, the
widespread protest across Britain forced the judicial system to act upon the matter though
there was a lot of delay in delivering punishment. According to Rocque and Piquero (2019),
the self-control theory of crime states the lack of self-control while committing a crime. This
too was evident in the Stephen Lawrence murder case, where the convicts couldn’t bear the
sight of a black boy and attacked him.
To conclude, it must be noted that the Stephen Lawrence murder case blatantly
exposed the racial discrimination that was prevalent in the society of Britain. It also brought
to light the incompetence of the criminal justice system while delivering justice to Stephen

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and his family. The essay discusses different theories and viewpoints regarding the criminal
justice system and how it was applicable in the case of Stephen’s murder. The murder put
forward a series of questions that people were forced to reflect. The killing showed how the
system of justice is not just at all instead tries to manipulate facts according to its
convenience. However, the positive side of all the counter-protest was that the murder unified
the nation who demanded justice for Stephen. The case compelled the lawmakers to change
some of the policies regarding blacks and to make their judicial system more useful for the
citizens of England.

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