Impact of Heinous Crimes on UK Judicial System

The provided document is an assignment that delves into the effect of severe crimes, such as murders linked to sexual assaults and racial discrimination, on the United Kingdom's judicial system. Over the past quarter-century, these cases have driven changes in public perception and led to amendments in criminal justice strategies, legislation, and the treatment of victims and criminals within the justice system.

Introduction to the
Criminal Justice System

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

TOPIC: Evaluate how particular crime cases in the last 25 years have changed criminal
justice legislation, policy and the work of relevant criminal justices agencies.
INTRODUCTION
Criminal justice system is the legal framework under which a person who have
committed crime is given punishments after carrying out significance level of investigation. The
criminal is prosecuted under different categories which are defined according to the intensity and
even of crimes in the criminal justice system of UK. With time the justice system have also
changes in UK with changes in punishments, rights to offender and victims, policing reforms
and changes in the social environment. The present reports is related with effective development
in the justice system of UK in context with criminology. The discussion is carried out precisely
for last 25 years to determine the changes with crimes cases affecting such occurrence. The aims
of this system is to protect the public, render justice and rule of law, maintain law and order,
sentencing the criminals.
MAIN BODY
Criminal justice system is related with delivering of the justice to those who have
committed crimes. The system of the justice for crimes includes government agencies and
institutions which have a main objective to identify and catch those who are involved in
unlawful criminal acts and to impose punishment on them. Along with rehabilitation of those
who have a potential of being change and grew as a human being (Crime and Punishment in the
United Kingdom, 2018). The essential parts of the criminal justice system; law enforcement,
courts, penal system and crime prevention. The criminal justice system (CJS) is made up
different agencies which includes police, prosecutors, criminal defense services, court, probation,
prisons, youth justice and Serious and organized crime agency. The criminal justice agencies
define and interpret their and legal responsibilities. All the agencies under this system performs
different functions for prevention investigation of crime and punishing the criminals. In the UK
there is no written penal code or definite statement of the principles of Criminal justice. In the
UK this is guided by certain principle which is adversarial justice.
In case of Tribal elders punish Aborigine car thieves, six persons aged between 15-25
were beaten up by stealing a car after the police let the elders handle of their tribe the matter in
their traditional way. In this case the judge upheld the traditional way of punishments as it bring
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a sense of shame and if caught again they will be beaten up by the women of same tribe. This
law was applied in Townsville, Queensland as Aboriginal justice.
Murder of Stephen Lawrence: A teenage of 20 years was murdered in 1993 by a gang on
the London street. This case is referred as distressing, infuriating, and inspiring. With this case
the every of British public opened up regarding reality of violent racism. In this case the police
investigation was found to have been defaced by professional incompetence, institutional racism
and a failure of leadership, have struggled to keep up with that pace of change (Stephen
Lawrence: how his murder changed the legal landscape, 2018). The offenders were punished
and convicted in January 2012, after 230 years of the crime. This case has fundamentally
changed the way police investigated the murders.
Progress has been made since 1993 when the proportion of minority ethnic officers was
stuck at only 2%. By December 2008 the figure had reached just over 4%. The target has since
been abandoned and the latest numbers for 2012 show that the proportion has reached 5% (Hohl
and Stanko, 2015). That is a total of only 6,664 officers out of 134,101 officers across Britain
and some officers still complain about specialist squads where black or Asian people are said not
to fit.
The rights of the defendant, and the victim and the public at large, are derived from the
provisions enacted by Parliament. Along with this, interpretations of the ordinary courts are also
included and those who are responsible for enforcing it. Defendants can claim no special status
unless given by the law and must always be answerable to the law.
Murder of James Bulger, 1993 in this a two year old boy James Bulger was killed by two
boys, aged 10 years. Both them were found guilty as sentenced to be detained indefinitely. They
both serve the sentence 8 years in prison and released on life license in 2001, but one of them
was detained again for breaching the license condition (Short and et.al., 2016). The murder of
Danial Handley in 1994, included sexual assault of a 9 year old boy by a couple. The judged
found the pair vultures and stated that they must never be set free. They were pronounced with
50 years life imprisonment with fine but sames was overruled by the European court of human
rights on the grounds of declaring the sames as illegal.
With the emerging trends in crime and punishments in the UK have always remained
challenging. There are different justice system in England and Wales while Scotland and
Netherlands have different system. With changes in the statistics of the crime in UK, age of a
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person to be imposed with criminal responsibility have been reduced to 10 years. Children
between age of 10-17 who have committed crimes are tried by the young court. For the sentence
term of less than 4 years prisons are released after serving half the sentences instead those who
are sentenced for more than 4 years are released after serving of 2/3 of the sentence and they
must have shown a good behaviour in prison (Hoyle and Rosenblatt, 2015)(. In 1999 the
custodial sentence for burglary increased from 10.9 months to 19.3 months. This flocculation
called for necessary establishment of a consistent pattern in sentencing cases. With this
Sentencing council was established for ensuring the consistency in the judicial system. Now
guidelines are issued by the council to assure coherency. For this a significant pattern has been
constituted which includes determining culpability and harm inflicted and after this the range of
sentencing is decided upon.
Sarah Payne was murdered in 2000, this was a considered to be a rare case, where the
offender was sentenced to 40 years of life imprisonment and he was not given a right to come out
of the prison on parole till he attains the age of 82 years. This was because he was also convicted
for the same Offense earlier. All the cases shook the justice system as well as the public and it
served as a basis for reforming the CJS. With this foundation of modern services was set up
which public deserves. In 2003, combination of two strike rule and extended determinate were
introduced in Criminal justice act 2003 to solve the vexing problem on how to deal with
offenders who has served their sentence but are still dangerous and violent (Criminal Justice Act
2003, 2018).
In 2006 a serial killer women who murders three men and dumped them in ditches was
arrested and sent to life sentence with a recommendation that she must never be released, seeing
the sensitivity of the case. Death of Baby P in 2007, this was a care where a baby of mere 18
months after suffering more than 50 injuries given to her by the boyfriend of her mother. The
case caused a shock and concern in the public as well in the parliament. As the cases fall under
the same jurisdiction where such case had happened in the past, and with the police framework
of the police investigation in juvenile crime were amended (Borschmann and et.al., 2018).
Moreover, with this case laws and legislation were charged for amendment to make polices
more strict and harsh for such type of horrifying cases of juvenile murders. Murder of Tia Rigg
2010, was a horrific murder committed by the uncle of victim, he torturer her and then strangled
her to death. After commitments of this, crimes he called the police and confessed about the
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same crime. He stated that he felt like doing it. This case was a lit as the Vitim was killed after
numerous tortures by her uncle and due to the sheer depravity of his crime and the agony and
terror Tia must have suffered, he should never be released.
As per the criminal statistics, 4.1% of the defendants who are found guilty are juvenile.
The overall rate of conviction in recent time have reached to 80%. Almost all the prison in the
UK have used their full capacity as number of inmates has reached to 86000 (Bradford, and
Myhill, 2016). The cases with imposition of the penalties have reached to 66%. In 2014, the
Bristol sex gang was arrested for raping and paying child for sex, instigating child prostitution
and sex trafficking. This created the outrage and demanded for significant justice for the victims
as all of them were minor and suffer both mental and physical trauma for a long.
All the cases mentioned above are related with horrifying crimes of murder and sexual
assault. The offenses in all the cases reflect their monstrous sides some of them commenced the
crime out of the will out of the sexual urge or any other reason. All this case raised question on
the judicial system on the UK as some of the offenders had committed the same offense for
second time with more brutality. This infect resulted in changes in policies, legislation and
agency framework and working criteria. The government introduced extended determinate
sentences for dangerous crime. The same was introduced as the part of Legal Aid, sentencing
and punishment of offenders Act, 2012. The applicability of the two strike rule was on serious
case of sexual offenses or violent cases that command a sentence of 10 years or more.
In present times the criminal law includes the principle of legality, equity, predictability
and proportionality. Without presence of a specified penal code the criminal justice system in
UK have evolved form the system of parliamentary sovereignty and the principle of the rule of
law. The laws has evolved with signing the treaty of Roman (Newbury-Birch and et.al., 2016).
And the primacy of the parliament have been changed since conclusion of various cases. With
this it can be seen that the justice system in the UK have evolved to a drastic level and, now the
victims as well as offenders are provided with fundamental rights. No one can b be deprived of
the basic rights adhered to them by the rule of law and parliaments.
In last 2 decades thing the law enforcement have changed and human rights are taken into
account as no person is liable to be punished or can be lawfully made to suffer in his/her body
except where there is a breach of law which is established in the ordinary legal manner before
the ordinary courts. The police investigation process are made more thorough. The prisons are
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almost full stating the fact that for crime more convictions are given to offenders. The legislation
have been amended regarding the inclusion of two strikes and extended determinate, striking out
the scope of indeterminate (Shackleton and et.al., 2018). This inclusion clarified the statue for
those criminal when have completed their sentence but are still dangerous and violent for the
public, if released.
CONCLUSION
To conclude it can be stated that with the some of the heinous cases of crime in past 25
years have ranged an alarm to change the perspective and development of the judicial system of
the UK. The cases which forced the change were murders related with sexual assaults, racial
discrimination, knife crimes etc. All of them make the public aware about the judicial system and
marked changes in the pattern of conviction, police investigation, the terms of giving bail etc.
All theses have changed the working pattern of the judicial agencies. Furthermore, legislation
were formed and amended as well to as new criminal offense of squatting. With his Criminal
justice strategies and action plans have also been set out in to provide swift and determined
responses to the scrim and treating criminals and victims with care and consideration.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Borschmann, R and et.al., 2018. Self-harm in the criminal justice system: A public health
opportunity. The Lancet Public Health. 3(1). pp.e10-e11.
Bradford, B. and Myhill, A., 2015. Triggers of change to public confidence in the police and
criminal justice system: Findings from the Crime Survey for England and Wales panel
experiment. Criminology & Criminal Justice. 15(1). pp.23-43.
Hohl, K. and Stanko, E. A., 2015. Complaints of rape and the criminal justice system: Fresh
evidence on the attrition problem in England and Wales. European journal of
criminology. 12(3). pp.324-341.
Hoyle, C. and Rosenblatt, F. F., 2016. Looking back to the future: Threats to the success of
restorative justice in the United Kingdom. Victims & Offenders. 11(1). pp.30-49.
Newbury-Birch, D and et.al ., 2016. A rapid systematic review of what we know about alcohol
use disorders and brief interventions in the criminal justice system. International Journal of
Prisoner Health. 12(1). pp.57-70.
Shackleton, D and et.al., 2018. Development of RapidHIT® ID using NGMSElect™ Express
chemistry for the processing of reference samples within the UK Criminal Justice
System. Forensic science international.
Short, R and et.al., 2018. Offending behaviour, health and wellbeing of military veterans in the
criminal justice system. PLoS one. 13(11). p.e0207282.
Online
Crime and Punishment in the United Kingdom. 2018. [Online]. Available through
:<https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/9781118519639.wbecpx245>.
Criminal Justice Act 2003. 2018. [Online]. Available through
:<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/libertycentral/2008/dec/16/criminal-justice-
act>.
Stephen Lawrence: how his murder changed the legal landscape. 2018. [Online]. Available
through :<https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/apr/22/stephen-lawrence-murder-
changed-legal-landscape>.
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