What is the criminal justice system?
All of the agencies, organizations, and personnel that are involved in the prevention and response to crime; persons charged with criminal offences, and persons convicted of crimes.
What is the purpose of the criminal justice system?
- Justice for all persons
- Respecting rights of victims and offenders
- Ensuring safety and security of communities
- Recent years: prevention and problem-solving
What is the Constitution Act of 1867?
The legislation setting out the division of responsibilities between the federal and provincial governments.
What are the roles and responsibilities of the federal government?
- Decides which behaviours constitute criminal offences
- Responsible for the criminal code
- The Anti-terrorism Act
- Sex offender Information Registration Act
- The RCMP are involved as a federal, provincial, and municipal police service.
What are the roles and responsibilities of the provincial/territorial governments?
- Responsible for law enforcement and for administrating the justice system.
What is the crime control model of criminal justice?
An orientation to criminal justice in which the protection of the commmunity and the apprehension of offenders are paramount.
What is the due process model of criminal justice?
An orientation to criminal justice in which the legal rights of individual citizens, including crime suspects, are paramount.
What is the adversarial system of justice?
A system of justice that is based on two opposing sides- the prosecution and the defence- arguing the guilt or innocence of a person before a judge or jury.
What is the Inquisitorial system of justice?
- Operates in many jurisdictions in Europe
A judge or panel of judges assumes the role of investigating the crime
What most deters someone from commiting a crime and what is least likely to deter someone from commiting a crime?
Pressures from family, peers, and employers most deter people from commiting crimes.
The criminal justice system is not a significant deterrence for crime.
What is restorative justice?
A problem-solving approach to responding to offenders based on the principle that criminal behaviour injures victims, communities, and offenders, and that all of these parties should be involved in efforts to address the cause of the behaviour and its consequences.
- Focuses on offenders righting their wrong by admitting and taking ownerhsip of fault and the community helping to facilitate it.
- More focused on rehabilitaion rather than punsihment.
