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BRCUL summary chapter 11 – 23Chapter 11: The law
The police and the public
Back in the day there was this image of the friendly British ‘bobby’: a typical British
policeman with his strange-looking helmet and no gun, with fatherly manners. They
still don’t carry a gun because they think that it will reduce the arms used against
them. This is not logical, because the UK has the biggest knife-crime. The system of
policing was based on a single police officer with his own ‘beat’: a particular
neighbourhood which it was his duty to patrol. People felt reassured by this familiar,
trusting figure.
After the 1960s crime became motorized and so did the police. There no longer was
time for patrolling your own beat, but they needed to deal with demonstrations of
young representatives who started seeing the police as the symbol of everything they
disliked. ‘Bobbies’ became ‘fuzz’, ‘cops’ and ‘pigs’.
After the police lost its trust from the population due to multiple shows, they
reintroduced foot patrols and other efforts have been made to re-connect. In general,
the relationship between the police and the public in Britain is still better than in some
other countries in Europe.
The organization of the police
There is no national police force for Britain. All police employees work for one of the
50 separate forces, each responsible for a certain geographical area.
Central government gained some control over them after they were set up locally.
They inspect the police, have influence over senior appointments but also provide
most of the money to run them.
The exception is the Metropolitan Police, which polices Greater London. The central
government has more direct control over them. The ‘MET’ performs certain national
police functions such as the registration of all crimes and criminals, and the
compilation of missing persons register.
New Scotland Yard is the well-known building which is the headquarters of its
Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which is kind of the same as the FBI in
Washington. It’s famous because:
- They discovered fingerprinting in the early 90s
- There are scientists who work for the police
- They discovered genetic fingerprinting (DNA) in the 1980s
ARU: armed response unit police officers that do have fire arms when the risk is
too high of fire arms
,Miscarriages of justice
The most famous miscarriages of justice occurred in connection with a series of pub
bombings by the IRA in the 1970s.
During the Birmingham Six, 2 pubs were blown up in Birmingham. It was the largest
mass murder since WWII. This was however never their intention, they wanted to
make chaos by planting bombs but giving them a warning. The police was under
enormous pressure to find the people who did this. They came across 6 men who
were going home from a funeral but arrested them, brought them down to the police
station and charged them with 18 years of prison after torturing them until they
confessed. After 3 weeks the police knew it wasn’t them but they continued. An MP
got complaints about these arrest and they started an investigation.
Also The Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven spent long years in prison before
their convictions were overturned because it had become clear that the police had
falsified evidence and/or withheld other evidence and/or extracted confessions using
illegal means.
Bridgewater four: in 1997, three men who had spent 17 years in prison for killing a
paper boy were released after their convictions were overturned. The fourth man had
died in prison.
Other familiar cases are the Cardiff Three and the M25 Three.
The image of crime
Lots of people think of young men when they think of crime. This is true, however,
the section with pensioners is increasing. This is because people are getting older
but putting aside less money for their old age. At the same time they feel increased
pressure to maintain a high standard of living.
Crime and criminal procedure
People think crime is increasing but this is hard to measure. One reason for this is
that the proportion of certain types of crime which is reported can vary over the
years.
But the fear of crime has definitely increased; this also has to do with the lack of
confidence in the ability of the police to catch criminals, therefor private security firms
are the fastest-growing businesses in the country in the last decades of the 20 th
century. Neighbourhood Watch schemes have also grown, they attempt to educate
people in crime prevention and to encourage the people of a particular
neighbourhood to keep their eyes open for anything suspicious.
The police has to follow rules regarding to the arrest of someone, the time they
detain someone and the time a person is in custody. Back in the day these rules
were not as good as they are now and a lot of people felt like criminals got away with
it too easily. The police now has to make a statement to make an arrest official,
without this statement, an arrest is not legal. Also, the police nowadays may detain a
terrorist suspect for 28 days without charge.
,The system of justice
The system of justice in England and Wales, in both civil and criminal cases, is an
adversarial system. This means that it is not the business of any court to find out the
truth. Its job is simply to decide ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a particular proposition (guilty or not),
after it has heard arguments and evidence from both sides.
OJ Simpson was an American celebrity (footballer) who killed his wife and her
boyfriend. He got the best lawyers in America and won the case because they played
the race cart (you’re all after him because he’s black). He admitted it indirectly afterwards in
an interview.
All civil cases go through County Courts and High Courts, or other, more specialized
tribunals. The criminal justice system has two kinds of courts. 90% of all cases are
dealt with in the magistrates’ courts. Every town has one of these. In them, a panel of
magistrates (usually three) passes judgement. When someone is guilty of a crime,
they may also impose a punishment. These magistrates, also known as Justices of
the Peace (JPs), are not trained lawyers. They are just ordinary people of good
reputation which have been appointed to the job by a local committee. They do not
get a salary or fee for their work and tend to come from the wealthier sections of
society.
Even serious criminal cases like murder and rape are first heard in a magistrates’
court, the only thing the JPs need to do, is decide that there is a prima facie (the
possibility that he/she is guilty) case against the accused. They then refer the case to a
Crown Court, where a professional lawyer acts as a judge. Also then, “normal”
people get to have loads of input in the outcome: a jury of 12 people decide whether
or not someone is guilty.
Juries are selected at random from the list of voters who do not have a criminal
record. In order to reach a verdict, there must be agreement among at least 10 of
them. If they do not reach agreement, the trial will start all over again with a different
jury. The duty of the jury is to act as a referee and to impose a punishment.
Modern British governments and some legal experts have sometimes expressed
doubts about the jury system
- One of the reasons is that juries so often find the defendant ‘not guilty’.
- Often, a lot of technical information is involved which an ordinary person
cannot be expected to understand
- Many people don’t want to do it and most of the time the more intelligent
people can get away with it
- It is also very expensive, because people have to be in sequester: een isolatie
opleggen, where you’re not allowed to have contact with the outside world for
the duration of the course
A convicted person may appeal for the Court of Criminal Appeal, either to have the
conviction quashed or to have the sentence reduced.
, If it’s someone’s first offence and the crime is small, whether the person is guilty or
not, they are often unconditionally discharged and can go free without punishment.
The next step up the ladder is a conditional discharge and/or a suspended sentence.
This means the suspect can go free but is kept an eye on, if they commit another
crime within a stated time, the first crime will be taken into account. They could also
be put on probation, which means that they have regular meetings with social
workers.
A very common form of punishment for minor offences is either a fine or a number of
hours of community service.
The highest court of all in Britain used to be the House of Lords but this now is the
Supreme Court. It hears matters on important points of law, mostly civil cases. It also
hears some criminal cases of great public importance.
The legal profession
There are two kinds of lawyers in Britain:
- Solicitors: handle most legal matters for their clients, including the drawing up
of documents communicating with other parties and presenting their client’s
case in a magistrates’ court, such as divorces and house buying. They could
never be ‘called to the bar’
- Barristers: a lawyer which is hired by the solicitors when a case is to be heard
in a higher court. They present cases in court and offer expert legal opinions
when asked. They do not talk with any of the clients he or she represents in
court, or with their witnesses, except in the presence of the solicitor who hired
them. They also wear a wig.
o Sheral Blare is the most famous barrister
In the last couple of years, the differences between the two have faded and as a
result, they came into competition with each other.
Judges also wear wigs to emphasize the impersonal majesty of the law and to
demonstrate impartiality. When a judge is appointed, it is almost impossible for them
to be dismissed. Often, judges have a later retiring age, but they also start later as a
judge because you have to be invited to be a judge. Their salary is very high.
The law in Scotland
Scotland has its own legal system. It also has an adversarial system, however it
leans more towards the Roman and Dutch law. The names of several officials in
Scotland are also different from those in England and Wales. A very noticeable
feature is that there are not 2, but 3 possible verdicts: guilty, not guilty and not
proven, which means that the accused person cannot be punished but is not
completely cleared of guilt either.
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