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Unit 6 Assignment A Legal Framework
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Mollie McMillanImportance of Working in the Legal Framework
Unit 6
Assignment A
In this assignment, we will be exploring how the criminal investigation procedures protect the
rights of victims and defendants and how the legal framework is applied in order to conduct
investigations thoroughly and ensure fairness in the court system. We will be investigating
things like types of crime and offences and criminal law along with civil law as well as the
limitations and effectiveness of the police force and different organisations relating to legal
procedures and showing their importance to contribute to a fair society.
The Criminal Court System
The criminal court system exists to ascertain whether or not a crime has been committed,
through certain laws and the organisation and structure of the different courts. There are two
types of courts: the Magistrates’ Court and the Crown Court. The Magistrates’ Court is used
to deal with smaller, less serious offences (usually dealt with by giving a fine (only up to
£5000) or community service and only give a maximum of 6 months jail sentences), the
judges are also unqualified or district judges compared to crown court which uses qualified
judges. The crown court deals with more serious crime that results in jail sentences such as
murder and rape. The two different types of court are important as it separates the types of
crime easier depending on severity and if there was only one type of court, cases could be
backlogged, causing more stress in families waiting for convictions, whilst also causing more
stress for judges and increasing the amount of cases needed to be covered in a day, this
could cause more errors in procedure.
The types of courts allow for types of offence can be separated into how they’re dealt with,
there are three different types of offences. There’s indictable offences, summary offences
and triable either way offences.
● Indictable offences: indictable offences are major crimes, like domestic violence and
kidnapping. These offences are firstly trialled in magistrates, who decide that it is an
indictable offence, and then it is passed on to be trialled in crown court.
● Summary offences: Summary offences are cases which are less severe, such as
vandalism, and these are tried in magistrates court.
● Triable either way: triable either way cases can be tried in both crown and
magistrates court depending on the severity of the crime. This can be for different
offences such as driving under the influence (for example how intoxicated somebody
is), arson (how much damage to property has occurred). This is why it’s effective that
all crimes go through magistrates first to determine severity, as it can act as a
baseline for not backlogging the attention needed for the cases in crown court.
, Criminal Law
Criminal law is defined by what Acts of Parliament decide is acceptable and unacceptable.
Moreover, there are two different types of legislation: primary and secondary legislation.
Primary legislation is an Act that is passed by parliament, whereas a secondary legislation
can make small adjustments to an Act and what procedures the new legislation will follow,
and what new rules will be added. If deemed unacceptable, laws will be formed around
criminal acts that can be breached by persons. It is usually related to offences that
negatively affect society rather than individuals. Crimes that have been committed are
usually brought to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to decide whether it will be heard in
Magistrates’ or Crown Court. Specific agency’s can also pursue criminal matters with
targeted interests, such as the RSPCA (an agency dealing with animal abuse and protecting
animals), and others like the Environment Agency. This is effective as it means more
breaches of criminal law are brought to light in certain sectors where they may not have
been previously, like animal abuse, and cases presented to judges so the defendant can be
convicted.
There are examples of different types of offences that breach criminal law, for instance,
murder and arson, sexual assault and battery and fraud. There are types of offences a
person can commit and the examples can be categorised into them: crimes against the
person, crimes against property and crimes against public order.
● Crimes against the person are defined as a crime committed through direct physical
harm or force being applied to another person. These can also be separated into
fatal offences (such as murder) and non-fatal/non-sexual offences (such as common
assault, poisoning and wounding with intent). They can also be categorised into
sexual acts like sexual assault.
● Crimes against property is another category of crime, this can be to do with private
property and can include crimes such as burglary, arson, shoplifting and vandalism.
Crimes like these can involve force. These crimes are also grouped under two
categories: destroyed property (arson) and stolen property (robbery). Products are
sometimes listed to be ‘hot products’ which can easily be disposed of but are also
easy to conceal and are valuable.
● Crimes against public order can be things like obstruction of highways, threatening
behaviour and affray (threatening unlawful violence to another person). Crimes
against public order can be defined as crimes that affect the orderly running of
society, so if somebody were to obstruct a motorway for example, people maybe
getting to work could be disrupted, ambulances wouldn’t be able to move through,
and the general running of life would be altered because of that crime. However you
can argue that some crimes like vagrancy (being homeless and with no income)
shouldn’t be considered a crime against public order as the individual might find it
difficult to move out of that situation.
It’s important that the types of offences can be separated into categories, as then correct
legislation can be followed in court and sentencing guidelines can be better followed. For
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