The Criminal Justice System

The Criminal Justice System

The Criminal Justice System is one of the most important tools

available to society for the control of anti-social behavior. The

criminal justice system needs to prove a balance between punishing the

guilty and protecting the innocent being found guilty; however it is

not as easy to convict those who are guilty of committing crimes.

There have been many miscarriages to justice where innocent people

were sent to prison. Many people have been affected by crime, this is

due to statistics, which show the various number of crimes committed

in particular areas.

Crime statistics are compiled differently by different forces which is

notoriously unreliable. There are two ways of measuring crime, through

police figures, which reflect recorded crimes and through British

Crime Survey (BCS) figures, which questions people in England and

Wales about their experiences as victims. Neither system is entirely

reliable. The Home Office research, for example, show that out of

every 100 crimes, only 50 will be reported and around 33 recorded. The

Observer poll (2003) shows that 19% of those mugged and 14% of those

violently assaulted failed to report the crime, in comparison to the

BCS who offers a more reliable measurement of some crimes, such as

theft. A person may not report a theft of an old, cheap car but would

talk to a researcher about it.

As crime statistics are compiled in two ways, or maybe more, the

public do get affected, as they do not know what figures to accept or

believe. It is obvious that people would like to believe that the

statistics, which show the least amount of crime, is true in

comparison...

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...ft of

an insured mobile phone is not a major crime to be reported, one may

believe that it is necessary to report this crime so police can record

it, which means that statistics will be more accurate.

Official crime statistics may not be entirely reliable however, it

does keep the public aware of crime either increasing or decreasing in

particular areas. Crime will probably never stop, so it will be very

difficult to believe what statistics are true. If the Government

change the existing ways of calculating figures, then hopefully

statistics will become reliable, however, it also depends on the

police, as they need to record all crime. Matters can be improved if

more victims have the confidence to report crime and of all crime is

recorded by the police; this should hopefully give accurate, reliable

statistics.