The Criminal Justice System Essay -- Papers crime statistics punishmen

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... ...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.