LAW

Components of Criminal Justice System

Components of Criminal Justice System

Question 1.

The criminal justice system refers to the system established by the government which consists of set agencies and process with the objective to control the crime pervading in the society and impose penalties on the wrong doers. Similar to other countries of the world, UK has also different process of the running their criminal justice system which entails different components such as police, the serious fraud office, the crown prosecution service, the judiciary, the criminal defense service, the probation service and the criminal injuries compensation authority (Miller, Blackler & Alexandra, 1997).

The Police in UK

The police in the UK are responsible for the investigation of the crimes, collection of the evidences and arresting the wrong doers and also to ensure the law and order machinery within their assigned territories. There are 43 forces of police in the England and Wales territories who are responsible for maintaining the law and order machinery and other functions that are discussed above. The minor cases that police suspect within the area are subject to their authority whether to take the action, fixed penalty notice or refer to the crown prosecution service which is another important component of the UK Police. Further, in United Kingdom every British citizen has certain limited powers whereupon they can arrest somebody being a committed if the crime is indictable. This kind of law is referred as the common law which is practiced in the Scotland and England (Adler, Mueller & Laufer, 2007).

The Police and Criminal Evidence Act (1984) grant the authority to vast majority of constables in England and Wales to have full powers of arrest and search if they find someone suspected. Unlike, other counties' law the police officers in UK are constables and there is no system of ranking in their respective departments. The police officers though enjoy the full powers, are still have obligations of civilian and are equally responsible for the obeying the social and civilian laws as members of the public. The police officers in UK are also not allowed to take active part in the politics and act as the neutral towards everybody. Also, there are equally strict laws for the police officers in violating any rule or being involved in illegal activities.

The Crown Prosecution Service in U.K

The Crown Persecution Service also known with his abbreviated form CPS is one of ...