The law110- Th e orga ni za t io n of the po lice force There is no national police force in Britain.. Hi s s t r a n ge - loo k in g helmetan the factthat hedid notcarrya gunmadehima un
Trang 1theLiberal Democrats (so tha ttogetherthey could defe t the
Co nservatives)
However, in 1 997 the pic ture changed dra matically L abo ur wo n
the l argest majority in the H o use of Co m mons achieve d b y a ny
party for 73 years and the Conservative s hare of the to tal vote was
t heir lowest i n 1 65 years What hap pene d? Th e answe r see ms to
bethat voting habitsin Britain , reflecting the weakening of the
class system, a re no longe r tribal There w as a t ime w hen t h e
Labour party was rega rded as the politica l a rm o f th e t rade uni o ns,
represe nting the work ing class of t he c o untry M o st wo rking-class
people votedLabour all theirlives and nearl yall middle-classpeople
voted Conservat ive a ll th eir lives Th e wi nn ing p arty at a n elec tion
was the one who managed to get the su pport ofthe smallnumber
of 'floating voters ', But Lab ou r h as now go t r idofits t rade-union
image.Itis capable of winning as many middle-class votesas the
Conservatives, so that t he mi ddle -class maj o ri ty in t he po pu l ation,
as identified by sociologists (see above), do es not automatically
mean a Co nservat ive majori ty i n t he House of Co m mons.
I T he B rit ish electora lsystem i s s aid to d
iscrimin-ate againstsmalle r parti es But lo ok at h etable
at t he beginni ng o f t his c hapter ag ain H ow can
it be that the very smallpart ies had mu ch better
luck at w inning p arliam en tary s eats th an t h e
(com par atively large) LiberalDem ocrats?
2 In wha twaysispo litical campaign ing inyour
cou ntry d ifferent from t hat in Bri tain a s
describe din thi s cha p ter'
3 Is there a similar levelofpu bli c int eres t in l
earn-ing about electio n resu lts in yo ur co un t ry as
there is in B ritain ? Do es i t see m to re flec t th e
generallevelof e nthusiasm a bo ut , and int erest
in , polit ics w hich e xist at o ther t imes - in Br itain
and in your ow n country ?
SU GG ESTI ON S
4 B ritain has'single- memberco nstituencies' Th is
m eans t hat on e M P alone re presen ts o ne par
-ticulargroupof voters (everybodyin his orher
cons tituency) Is this a good system? Oris it
be tt e to have severa l M Ps re presenting the same
ar ea ?W hat ar e t he a dvantages a nd di sadvantages
o f th e two systems?
5 Do youthinktha tBrita inshouldadoptthe elect
-oralsystemusedinyou rcou nt ry'Or perh aps
you think that yourcountryshouldadopt th e
syst em use d in B ritain ?Or are t he t w o di fferen t
systems th erightones for th etw o different
c ou ntries? W hy?
• If you ca n get Br itish te lev isio n o r adio , w atc h or li sten in o n t h e
nigh t ofth enext Britishgener al electio n
Trang 2The law
110- Th e orga ni za t io n of the po lice force
There is no national police force in Britain All police employees work for oneof theforty or so se paratc
f orces wh ich each ha ve r esponsib il-ity f o r ap ar t ic ula rgeog raphical a rea
O rigina lly t hese were set up l o ca ll y.
Only later did ce ntral govern ment
gain some control over the m h inspects them and has influence over senior appoint ments w ithi n t he m
I n r eturn , itprov ides abouth alf o f
t he m o n cy to ru n t hem T he ot he r
h l f c o mes f rom lo cal gove rn m ent.
T he exce ption to this sys t em is t h e
M etropoli tan P oli ce Force w hich polices Greater London The 'Met' is under the direct control of central
go vernment.I also perfo rms ce rtain nat iona l p oli ce f unct i o s s uch a s he
reg i stratio n of a ll cr imes a nd cri m
-i nals i n E ng l and an d Wale s a nd th e com pilatio n o f th e mi ssing pe rso ns
r egis ter Ne w S co tland Y ard is t he fam ou s b ui ldin g whi ch is t hehe ad
-qu arters of its C rimi nal Investigat ionD epart ment(C ID).
The policeandthe public
Therewas a timewhen asupposedly typicalBritish policemancould
b e fou nd in ever y to urist b ro chu re f or Br itain Hi s s t r a n ge - loo k in g
helmetan the factthat hedid notcarrya gunmadehima un ique symbolfortourists.The imageof thef iendlyBritish'bobby', with
hi s fa therly ma nner, wa s a lso well -kno wn wi thin the co untry a nd
wasreinforced b populartelevisionserials suchasDixonof DockGreen
( 0)Ima gesofthe palice: past andpresent) Thispositiveimagewasn t a complete myth.The systemofpolicin gwas based on each police officer havinghisown 'beat',a particularneighbourhood whichi
washisduty to patrol.Heusuallydid thison foot orsometim esb bicycle.Thelocalbobbywasafamiliar figureo thestreets,a reassur -ingpresencethatpeoplefeltthey could trustabsolutely
In the 1 60 s t h e si tuation began to c hange in t wo w ay s F ir st, i n
r espon s to a n in cr easingly m otori z ed s o cie t y, and t heref o r in cr ea
s-inglymotori zedcrime, he police themselves started patrollingin cars Asaresuh,individualpolice officersbecamerem otefigures andstopped bein gthe familiarfacesthattheyo cewere.Asig of this change wasthe new televisionpolicedrama,ZCars.Thispro -gram me showed po ce officers as peoplewit realproblems an failingswho did not alwaysbehavein theconve ntionall politeand
rea ssuring m anner S ome p olice w ere r elieved to b e p rese nted a s
ordinaryhumanbein gs Butthecomparativelynegative imageofthe police which thisprogramm eportrayed causeduproa r andseveral senior policeofficials complained tothe BBC aboutit' At the same time, hepolicefound themselveshaving to deal increasinglywith
p ub lic de mo nstratio ns an d w ith t h e act ivities o f a g eneration w ho
h ad n o e xperience of war an d ther efore no ob vi o u senemy-figureo n
whichto focustheiryouthful feelin gs ofrebellion These young peopl estartedtoseethepoliceas thesymbol ofeverything they
dislikedabout society Policeofficerswerenolonger knownas 'bo bbies'butbe ame the'fuzz' or the 'cops' orthe'pigs' Since the middleyears ofthe twentiethcentury,the policein
B ritain have l os t mu c h of t heir p o sit i v e i m age A c hil d wh o is lo st
is stilladvised tofind apolice officer,but he Sight of onen longercreates a generalfeeling of reassurance.In the 1980sthe re
Trang 3of thepolic ehasdeclined.
Nevertheless, hereis stllagreat deal ofpublicsympathy for th
police.Itisfellthat theyare doing an increasin gly difficultjo b under
difficult circumstances Theassumption that their ole isto serve th
p blic rather than1Obe agents of thegovernmentpersists Police
officersoftenstilladdress mem bers ofthe publicas'sir'or'm ada m '
Seniorofficers thinki isimportan t for the police1Oestablish are
la-tion shipwitltlocal people , an the phrase 'communitypolicing'is
nowfashionable Somepolic have even started topatrol on foot
again Gen erally spe aking , the relationshipbetween police and public
in Britaincompares quitefavourab lywiththatinso meotherEuro pean
countries Britishpolicestill dono t carrygunsinthe course ofnorm al
duty (althougli allpolicestato nsh veasto re of weapons)
Cr ime a n d c rimin al proced ure
Thereisawidespreadfeelingam o ng th Bri ish publicthat crime is
increasing Figureson thismatter aren toriouslydifficult toevalu
-ate,however Onereasonfor thisisthatno t allactu lcrimesare
necessarily reported.Officialfigures su ggest hat he crimeofrape
increased bymo rethan50%between 1988 and 1992 But these
figur esnuyrepr esentanincreaseinthenum ber ofvictimswilling
toreport raperather than a real increase in casesof rape
Im a ge s o f he polic e : past a nd pr es ent
of h is life in prison serving a sen -tence for murder was re leased It had been proved that he did not in fact commit the crime.
In the early 1 9 90 S a large number
of people were let out of British gaols after spending several years serving sentences for crimes they
di d not commit The most famous of these were 'the Guildfor d Four' and 't he Birmi n gham Six', both groups
of people convicted of terrorist bombings In every case, prev ious court judgements were changed when it became dear that the police had not acted properly (for example, they had falsified the evid -ence of the ir notebooks or had not revealed important evidence).
Public confidence in the police dim inishe d In {he case of the alleged bombers, there rema ined some pub lic sympathy The police office rs involv ed may have been v\'ro ng but they were trying to catch terrorists The Kizsko case was dif -feren t He did not be long to an illegal organizat ion H is only' crime' was th at he was in the \vrong place
at the wrong time H e also con -formed to a stereotype, which made
h im an easy victim of prejudice He was of below average i ntelligence and he had a foreign name, so a jury
\ a likely to see him as a potenti al
mu r derer.
The traditional image: Dixon of
DockGreen speaking fatherly words
of wisdom to the television audience
in the 1 9 60s.
The modern image: a scene from the
po pular I 990S telev i sion series T he
Bill.
Trang 4Nevert heless i is generally accepted that in thelastquarter ofthe
twentieth cent ur y.thenum berofcrimeswent up ( !>I scrimeincreasing
in Britain?) And therearof crimeseemstohave incre sed alot This
h sgone tog ether withalack ofconfiden cein the abilityofthepolice
tocatchcrim inals.In the early I 9 90Sprivate security firms wereone
of the fastest-g rowing busine ssesin the country.Ano ther response
tothe perce ivedsiuation has been thegrowth ofNeighbo ur hood Watchsc emes.Theyattempt to educatepeoplein crime prevention
andto encourage the peopleofa particular neighbourhoodtolook
outfor anythingsuspicious.In 1994 the governmentwasevenc n -siderin g helping mem bers of theseschemesto organizepatrols
Therehasalsobeensom e impatien ce with th rulesof crim inal
pro cedure under wh ichthepoliceandcourtshaveto operate.The
policeare not, of course, above the law When theyarrest some bo dy
onsuspicion of havin g com m itted a crime,theyhavetofollo w certain procedures Forexample unlessthey obtainspecialperm ission, hey
are no tallow edtodetainaperson formorethantwenty-fo ur hours withoutforma llychargi ngthat person withhaving committed a crim e.Even after theyhave chargedsomebody theyneed permission
toremandtha tperson in custody (i.e to keephim orher in prison) untilthe caseisheard in court In 1994 public conce rn about crim-inals'getting awaywithit'Ted the government tomakeonever y
co ntro versialcha ngein the law ( 0)Caution!)
'You do not have to say any thing unlessyou wish to do so, butwh at } 'ou say mar be given in evidence'.
These words a re we ll-known t o almost everybody in Britain T hey
h ave been heard in t ho usands of
p olice dramas on te levision F or a
l on g time t hey formed wha t s t ech
m ust b e r ead out to an ar rested
p erson in o rd er to m ake t he arrest
l egal B ut, in t 99+, the Briti sh g
s ilence ' con tained in t he cauti on made th ings too easy fo r cr im inals.
This r ight meant that the refusa l of
an arrested person to answer police questions could not be used as p an
of the evidence against him or her.
Now, however, it can.
To accord with the new la w, the words of the caution have h ad to be changed T he n ew formu la i s: 'Yo u
do no t h ave to say a nyth in g B lII if you d o not me ntion n ow s om ething
w hic h y ou la ter li se in yo ur de fence,
f ai l ure to m enti on it now
recor d will be made of a nythi ng you say a nd it m ay be g iven i n e viden ce
ifyou are bro ught to tr ial '.
C tvtl l tberues groups i n B ritain a re angry about this change They s ay that many ar rested people fi nd it too difficult to understand and th at it is not fa ir t o encourage people to defend themselves imme diately
not ye t k now the d etails T he y are also a fraid it c nco urages f alse con fessions.
Is crim eincreasingin Britain?
B ritish p eopl e t hink that crime i s
r ising i n B ritain, but it i s impossible
to give a co m ple tely re liable answer
t o t his question Fi gures vary from ycafto ye ar I n 1 99 3 for ins tance,
t he tota l n umber of reco rded c ri mes
i n t he L ond on a rea ac tua lly we nt
l ow er , than it w as d ur ing th e se cond
h a lf of th e ni neteenth c nt ury
H o w ev er, ther e i s n d oubt t hat in
t h e l a st quar t er of th e twen ti eth
ce ntu ry t here w as a d efin i te
in crease i n c er t a i n t ypes of c r ime.
Cr imes wit h fir ear m s (guns r ifles ere) a re an example, as the graph shows.
recordedbythe police in England and Wales
1 000
8 ,000
6,000
4 000
2,000
,., 1Ro bbery
~ l V iolence aga inst t he p e rso n
Trang 5T he sys tem of j u stice
Thesystemof justicein Englandand Wales,in bo thcivil andcrim inal
cases, is(as it is in NorthAmerica) anadversarialsystem, Incrim inal
cases thereisno such thing as an exam ining magistrat e whotrieslO
discover the real truth aboutwhat happen ed In formaltermsit is
not hebusiness of anycourttofindou t'the truth'.Itsjobis Simply
todecid e 'yes'or 'no 'to a particularpropositi on (in criminalcases ,
t1;at acertain per sonisguilt y ofacertain crime) after it hasheard
argumentsande idence from bothsides (incrim inal casesthese
sides areknown asthe defence andthe prosecuti on )
TherearebasicallytWOkindsof court.More than 90%of all cases
aredealt with in magistrat es ' co urts, Ever ytow nhasoneof these,In
them,a panelofmagistrates(usuall ythree)passesjudgement.In
caseswhere they havedecid ed som ebo dy is guiltyof acrime, they
can also impose a punishmen t.This can beimprisonmentforuptoa
year,oritcan be afine,althoughifi isa per son's'first offenc e' and
thecrimeisnot serious, theyoften imposeno punishmentat all
( t>Thesentence of thiscourt is )
Magistrates'courtsare anotherexampleofth im po rta ceof
amateurismin British publiclife,Magistrates, wh arealso know n
as ustices of thePeace(IPs).arenot trainedlawyers.They are just
ordinary people of goodrep utationwho havebeen appointed toth
jobby a local comm irtee.Theydo not get a salaryora feefor their
work(though they getpaid expenses) Inevitably,theytendto come
% 0 5 16 I S 2 0 H ]0
Thesentence of this cou r tis
I it i s som cone's fir st o ffence, a nd
the cr ime i s s m all o ne , eve n a
guil ty per son i s often un co nditi o
-a lly di sch a rg ed H e or she i s set f ree
w ith out pu ni shm e nt ,
The n ext e 'ep up t he ladd er i s
co ndi tio na l d isch arge T hi s mea ns
t hat t h e g Uilty p erson i s se t f ree but
if he o r s he com m its a nother crime
w ithin a s tated li m e t he fi rst cr ime will be t aken int o a ccount , H e or she
m ay a l so b e p ut o n pro bation
which means tha t r e g lar meet in gs
wit h a socia l w or k e r must take pla ce.
A v ery c om mon for m of punish
-ment f or m inor offe nce s i s fin e
w hic h m ea n s that the guilt y er son
has to pa y a s um o f mone y , Another p ossibilit y i s th at the
co nvi cted p erson is se nte nced to a
ce rtain num ber of h our s o f c o m-munit y service
Wherev er p ossible mag istra tes
and j udge s tr y n o t t o impri son
p eop le T hi s co sts t he sta le mon ey.
t he c ou ntry's prisons ar e al ready ove rcro w ded an d pri sons h ave a rep urauon for being 'school s f or
cri me' Even peo ple who ar e se nt t o
p ri son d n ot u sually serv e the whole tim e t o whi ch th ey w ere sen
-t enced Th e)' g et 'remi ssion' o f t heir
s en t ence f or 'good beha vio ur '
There i s no d eath p en alty in
Br itain exc ept f or t rea so n It wa s
abolished f or all othe r offen ces in
196 9, A lthough p ubli c opi ni on
poll s often s ho w a maj ori ty i ll favour
o f it s ret urn a m ajor ity ofM P s h a
a lw ays been agai n st it For mur
-de rers ther e i s an o bligato ry lif e
se ntence , H owever 'life' d oes not
no rm ally m ean life
t hem w heth e r the)' have bee n t he
v ictim s of c r i m e, On the left arc
so m e o f the resu lts o f a survey i n [99 0 w hich i nterviewed2 , 0 0 0
peop le in s everal cou ntries Th e
figure s s how t he perc enta ges o f
i nt erviewees wh o s aid t hey h ad bee n
victi ms
Car thefts
-
-% 0 0 5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2 5
All surveyed
crimes
USA
Canada
Australia
Netherlands
Spain
WestGermany
England&Wales
France
Scotland
Belgium
Norway
Finland
Switzerland
Northern Ireland
S ou r ce:Inrernational H ome Office CrimeSurvey
Trang 61 10 IIThelaw
Someterms conn ectedwith the le galsystem
a cq uitted found not g uilt} ' by the
c o urt
b ail a sum of money g uarant eed b y somebo dy on beh a lf of ,1 pers on who has been ch arge d wi t h a
c ri m e s o th at he or s he ca n go free
u ntil th e t im e o f th e trial.Ifhe or
s he doe s n ot appear in coun the
the mone y.
c o n vic t ed found guih ybythe
co u r t def endant the p art}' who de nies a cla i m i n c ourt: the pe rson accus ed o f a crime
on re man d i n p riso n a wa iting trial
pa rty one of the s ides i n a co u
c ase Beca use o f the adversa r ial sys tem , there mu s t a lways be tw o pani cs in an r c ase: one to make a claim a nd one to de ny this claim
plaintiff the part}' who makes a claim i n coun I II nearly a ll c rim
-i na l c ases, t he p laintiff is t he
p olice.
verdict the d ecisio n of th e coun
Atypicalcourtroom sceneshow g the
judge,thejury,and a witnessbingques
-tioedb abarrister (camerasarenot
cllowedincourt)
-diceswer e veryobvio us.Theywere especially harsh , forinstan ce ,
o people fo undguil tyofpoachin g (huntinganim also private
land) ,even thoug hthesepeopleso m etimes had topoach inorder
toputfood on their families' tables.In moderntimes,however , som c careistakentomakesure that JPsarerecr uit edfrom asbroad a sect on
of societyaspossible
Even seriouscriminalcasesarefirstheard inamagistrate 'scourt
primafa ciecase againstthe accuse d (in other words, that it is possible
that he orshe mayb guilt )') The)' then referthe casetoa higher
c urt.Inmostcases thiswill be acrow nco urt , where a professio nal
from thelstof voters.Theyd n tgctpaidfor theirservicesandare
o ligedto performthisduty.Inorderforaverd ict to b reached,
theremustb agreem cnt amo gat leastlen ofthem I thisdoesn t
happen ,the judge has to declare a mistrialand the case must start all
over again with a differ ent jury.A convicted personmayappealtothe
Courtof Crim inalAppea l(gene rall)' kno w n just as the Appeal Co urt )
in London either tohavethe conv iction quashed (i.c, he jury's
or to have the sentence (i.e punishment )reduced.Thehighest court
of all in Britain is the Ho se ofLords (seechapter9)
Theduty ofthejud geduring a trialistoact as the refereewhile
theprosecutionand defen ceputtheircases andquestio nwitnesses,
or can't betaken into accountb),thejury) It isalso,ofcours e, the
judge 'sjobto imposea punishment (knownas 'pronouncing
sente ce')o thosefoundguilt), ofcrimes
Trang 7Theyhandlemost legal matters for their clien ts , includingthe
drawing upof documents (suchas wills, divorcepapers and
clients' cases in magistrates'courts.How ever, onlysince 19 94 have
Barristers havetoattendon e ofth e fourIn n s of Court in Lo nd o n
-leges (see chapter 14).For exam ple, alh ou gh th ere aresome lectures,
then si exams.If theypass, they are 'called toth ebar ' an dare
yearsof asso ciationwithas niorbarrister, after whichthe most able
typicallyBritish (see chapter 14)
principlesofthe law rathe rthano details, an dth ey acquirethe
M i nist ry o f justic e?
A ctually there is n o such thing in
Br itain The th ings t hat su ch a min is -try takes care of in other countrie s
are shared between a number o f authorities, in parti cular th e Home
Office, w hi ch admini sters prisons
and su pervises t he p olice, and t he office of t he L ord Chanc ellor, which over sees the appointment of judges, magistrates and othe r l e gal o fficer s.
Th e law in Sc otl an d
Sc otlan d has i ts own legal s ystem ,
se parate from the rest o f the United King dom Although it also uses an
ad versarial system oflega l proced -ure, t he basis of its la w i s closer to
R oma n and Dutch l aw The names
of seve ral officials in Scotland are also different from t hose in Eng land
and Wal es A very noticeable feature
is th at t here ar e t hree , n ot just t wo,
p ossible verdicts As we ll as 'g uilty'
a nd 'n ot guilty' a jury ma y r each a verdict of 'not pro ven', which means that the accused person
c annot be punis hed but is no t com
-p letely cleared of guilt either.