to what extent can the stucture and processes of criminal justice be said to represent a system in England and Wales

Running Head : criminal justice

To what extent can the structure and processes of criminal justice be said to represent a system in England and Wales

[Name of the writer]

[Name of the institution]

To what extent can the structure and processes of criminal justice be said to represent a system in England and Wales

The criminal justice system is one of the very major public service in the society . There are many agencies who work together under criminal justice system some of these are police , the courts , the prison service

, the crown prosecution service and the national probation service . The work of these agencies is over looked by three government departments which are the home office , the attorney general office and the department of constitutional affairs

Sentencing is seen as an important aspect of the criminal justice system and has been used as a way of dealing with offenders since the founding of the law system as we know it . It is not a simple process however , as many considerations must be taken into account before an appropriate sentence can be imposed . For example , should the main aim of sentencing to be to protect the public from the offender or purely to punish or rehabilitate the individual committing the offence ? Furthermore , does punishment of this sort actually help to reduce crime and can the CJS realistically achieve all that it sets out to

There are a great number of factors that influence sentencing in England and Wales . First and foremost the magistrate examines the seriousness of the offence in relation to other crimes . Therefore , a crime such as murder would require a much harsher punishment than for shoplifting due to the fact that it has obvious victims and acting in a lenient manner would cause uproar . It must also be determined whether or not the misdemeanour had any mitigating or aggravating factors . An aggravating factor is where the crime committed took place against a vulnerable individual or group , such as the elderly . In addition , any offence that was planned or involved any sort of weapon could be seen as aggravation along with any previous convictions that the defendant may hold (Flood-Page Mackie , 1998 , Morgan Reiner 2002 . A mitigating factor on the other hand , could lead to a shorter or more lenient sentence , due to such factors as mental disability , financial pressures or if no actual harm has been caused to the victim . The most frequently applied mitigating factor is the use of a guilty plea . If a defendant pleads guilty in a case then this can lead to up to a third being discounted off the initial sentence (Morgan Reiner 2002 . The earlier in the court proceedings that the plea is entered can also have an influence on how lenient the judge or magistrate chooses to be . Furthermore , if a defendant shows visible remorse for what he /she has done then the courts are increasingly likely to display some compassion

In any case where there is a clear victim then...