LLB 130 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Victimisation, Procedural Justice, Interdisciplinarity
Week 13 – Criminal Process III
The two tiers of justice (CB 272-289)
Structure of the criminal courts:
• Higher riial ourts ail serious iditale atters:
- Court of Criminal Appeal
- Supreme Court
- District Court
• Loer riial ourts:
- Local Courts
- Childres Courts
- Coroers Courts
Volume of lower v higher courts:
Lower courts:
• Local Court charges = 104 982
• Childres Court harges = 74
Higher court 3975 registered cases being:
• Supreme Court = 110
• District Court = 3865
Source: NSW BOCSAR, Criminal Courts Statistics (2014)
Technocratic Justice (CB 259-264):
• Aim of increasing efficiency
• Move from the formalized processes and moral content of the criminal law towards
tehorati justie
• Move away from judge/jury trials to magistrate/expansion of summary jurisdiction
• Also involves:
- Increasing reliance on guilty pleas and rewards of sentencing discounts
- Favoring judge only trials
- proliferation of tribunals
- use of on-the-spot-fines
- expansion of summary jurisdiction
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Models of the Criminal process
The crime control model:
• Main priority is the repression of criminal conduct and maintenance of public order
• Places emphasis on efficiency, speed and finality
• Involves a series of routinized processes which aim to identify suspects early, discard
the unlikely ones, convict the rest, and afford little opportunistic for challenge (like
an assembly line which carries the accused as fast as possible towards conviction).
• To do this the processes of the model are informal (less ritualized), routine, and work
largely on the assumption that the police did their investigation properly and
therefore the defendant is likely to be guilty.
• The lower courts exemplify this model more closely.
Due process model:
• Its main priority is to critically examine the evidence in order to determine guilt or
innocence.
• Places emphasis on processes and the protection of the innocent
• Makes use of ritualised judicial processes and thorough examination of facts. There
is a presumption of a possibility of errors in the facts and investigation (like an
obstacle course which must be overcome in order for the defendant to be
convicted).
• Control mechanisms are put in place, such as regulation and limitation of official
powers, and the use of rules (eg double jeopardy)
• The higher court exemplify this model more closely.
Infringement notices:
• Involve the payment of sum in order to discharge potential criminal liability
• Increasing use of on-the-spot fines rather than prosecution
• Police empowered to issue infringement notices: see 333 Criminal Procedure Act
1986 s 333
• Advantages:
- Imposes punishment whilst saving court costs – penalties are mainly financial
ad o aoutailit as to ho pas
- Avoid trauma on D, and expense to P, of trial
• Disadvantages:
- Diminution of moral content of particular offences
- Departure from traditional principles of criminal law
- Pressure to pay even if innocent
- Net-widening when caution could be used
- Victimisation of specific groups in community
- No requirement that the person who receives the fine pays the fine
Source: NSWLRC, Penalty Notice (2012)
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Document Summary
Structure of the criminal courts: (cid:858)higher(cid:859) (cid:272)ri(cid:373)i(cid:374)al (cid:272)ourts (cid:894)(cid:373)ai(cid:374)l(cid:455) serious i(cid:374)di(cid:272)ta(cid:271)le (cid:373)atters(cid:895): Lower courts: local court charges = 104 982, childre(cid:374)(cid:859)s court (cid:272)harges = 74(cid:1004)(cid:1005) Higher court 3975 registered cases being: supreme court = 110, district court = 3865. Technocratic justice (cb 259-264): aim of increasing efficiency, move from the formalized processes and moral content of the criminal law towards (cid:858)te(cid:272)h(cid:374)o(cid:272)rati(cid:272) justi(cid:272)e(cid:859, move away from judge/jury trials to magistrate/expansion of summary jurisdiction, also involves: Increasing reliance on guilty pleas and rewards of sentencing discounts. The crime control model: main priority is the repression of criminal conduct and maintenance of public order, places emphasis on efficiency, speed and finality. Its main priority is to critically examine the evidence in order to determine guilt or innocence: places emphasis on processes and the protection of the innocent, makes use of ritualised judicial processes and thorough examination of facts. Involve the payment of sum in order to discharge potential criminal liability.
