These notes cover the entirety of AC2.1 for Unit 3. For use in the Crime Scene to Court Room Controlled Assessment (WJEC Applied Diploma in Criminology). Include sufficient detail and relevant case examples. Achieved top grades using these notes.
AC2.1 Explain the requirements of the Crown Prosecution Service for prosecuting
suspects.
The Crown Prosecution service (CPS) advises the police in their investigations about what
evidence might be required to build a specific case. The CPS was established in 1986 by the
Prosecution of Offences Act 1985. Before this act came into play the police both investigated
and prosecuted crimes. The CPS must consider what the defence case is and how it will
affect the prosecution case. To make a decision about whether to prosecute the CPS applies
tests that are laid down in the code for Crown Prosecutors. The full code test is made up of
two separate stages or tests: evidential test and public interest test. The Criminal Justice Act
2003 amends the law relating to police powers, disclosure, bail, allocation of criminal
offences. Statutory charging was introduced under the Criminal Justice Act. The CPS are in
charge of decisions by reforming the system for allocating cases to court, and increasing
magistrates’ sentencing powers so that fewer cases have to go to the Crown Court.
Evidential Test
The evidential test asks if there is enough evidence to be able to convict. If a case does not
pass the evidential stage, even if it severe such as murder, it cannot be allowed to proceed.
Prosecutors must decide before putting a case forward if the evidence is admissible in court.
They do this by assessing if the evidence is likely to be rejected as inadmissible in court, for
example, hearsay evidence. Prosecutors then must decide whether there is any reason if the
evidence is reliable, for example are the witnesses truthful? Prosecutors also need to
assess whether or not the evidence is credible to a reasonable person. ‘Reasonable person’
would usually mean the jurors, judge or magistrates. If the prosecutor decided that the
evidence is not admissible, reliable and credible then the prosecution must not go ahead.
Public Interest Test
The CPS must consider whether or not it is in the public interest to prosecute. In order to
decide there is a list of questions to consider. Some questions are how serious is the
offence? The more serious the offence the more likely the suspect is to be prosecuted.
Another question is what is the impact of the offending on the community? The greater the
impact, the more likely it is to be prosecuted. There are seven questions in total and not all
questions may be relevant in every case. In the case of Abu Hamza, there was an
overwhelming public interest.
Threshold Test
However, in some cases a suspect may still be convicted even if the evidence requirements
of the full code test cannot be met and instead the threshold test must be applied. The
threshold test has five conditions, all of which must be met before a suspect can be charged.
These conditions are:
1. There must be reasonable grounds to believe the person has committed the offence.
2. There must be reasonable grounds to believe further evidence can be obtained that
will provide a realistic prospect of conviction.
3. The crime is serious enough to justify charging the suspect immediately.
4. There must be substantial grounds to object to bail.
5. It must be in the public interest to charge the suspect.
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