Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0055/00551.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 20KB | 353 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00551}
$Pretitle{405}
$Title{United Kingdom
Justice and the Law in Britain}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC}
$Affiliation{Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC}
$Subject{police
crime
criminal
ireland
law
northern
act
government
local
prevention}
$Date{1990}
$Log{Table 1.*0055101.tab
}
Country:     United Kingdom
Book:        Justice and the Law in Britain
Author:      Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC
Affiliation: Embassy of the United Kingdom, Washington DC
Date:        1990

Justice and the Law in Britain

     Although the United Kingdom is a unitary state, England and Wales,
Scotland and Northern Ireland all have their own legal systems, with
considerable differences in law, organisation and practice. However, a large
volume of modern legislation applies throughout the United Kingdom. There is
a common distinction between criminal law, concerned with wrongful acts
harmful to the community, and civil law, concerned with individuals' rights,
duties and obligations towards one another.

     The main sources of law are government legislation, common law and
European Community law. Common law, the ancient law of the land deduced from
custom and interpreted in court cases by judges, has never been precisely
defined or codified but forms the basis of the law except when superseded by
legislation. European Community law is confined mainly to economic and social
matters; in certain circumstances it takes precedence over domestic law. It is
normally applied by the domestic courts, but the most authoritative rulings
are given by the Community's Court of Justice.

     Certain changes to United Kingdom law have been enacted as a result of
rulings of the European Court of Human Rights. These arose where domestic law
was in breach of the Council of Europe's Convention for the Protection of
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, to which the United Kingdom is a party.

Criminal Justice

     The Government's strategy for dealing with crime is to prevent it, where
possible; to detect suspects; to convict the guilty and acquit the innocent;
to deal with those found guilty; and to provide more effective support for the
victims of crime. It is also concerned to maintain public confidence in the
criminal justice system and a proper balance between the rights of the citizen
and the needs of the community as a whole.

     With continuing concern in Britain, as in many other countries, over
rising crime rates, public expenditure on the criminal justice system has
increased from about 2,000 million Pounds in 1979-80 to an estimated 7,000
million Pounds in 1989-90, an increase in real terms of about 50 per cent.
Extra spending has taken place on the police, the probation service and
prison building. More than two-thirds of expenditure is initially incurred
by local government authorities, with the help of central government grants,
mainly on the police.

Crime Statistics

     Differences in the legal systems, police recording practices and
statistical classifications in the countries of the United Kingdom make it
impracticable to analyse in detail trends in crime for the country as a
whole. Nevertheless, it is clear that, as in Western Europe generally, there
has been a substantial increase in crime since the early 1950s. However,
official statistics cover only crime recorded by the police and can be
affected by changes in the proportion of crimes which are undiscovered or
unreported.

[See Table 1.: Notifiable Crimes Recorded by the Police in England and Wales
1989]

     Table 1 shows the number of offences recorded by the police in England
and Wales in 1989 and their clear up rates. There were 3.9 million crimes in
1989, of which 32.3 per cent were cleared up. Violence against the person
accounted for only 4.6 per cent of recorded crimes. The Scottish police
recorded 493,000 crimes, of which 33 per cent were cleared up.

     Crime tends to be concentrated in inner cities and deprived areas; the
risk of burglary can be as high as one in ten houses a year in inner city
areas, compared with one in 100 in rural areas. Rising affluence has provided
more opportunities for casual property crime. In 1957, for example, car crime
was only 10 per cent of total crime but 30 years later this had risen to over
25 per cent.

     Most crime is committed by young males; it is opportunist and is not
planned by hardened professional criminals although these do exist. Only a
small proportion of young male offenders go on to become serious repeat
offenders.

Crime Prevention

     The national crime prevention programme is overseen by the Ministerial
Group on Crime Prevention. National publicity campaigns, such as the Crack
Crime campaign launched in 1988, are a regular feature of the Government's
programmes. The Home Office's Crime Prevention Unit helps local agencies to
design and implement preventive measures and to assess the results. In
Scotland national publicity is administered through the Crime Prevention
Committee.

     Other Government departments are brought together with the Home Office in
the Ministerial Group to deal with crime prevention strategies. The Department
of the Environment's Priority Estates Project and Estate Action Programme are
designed to encourage improvements in the design, layout and management of
housing estates. The gas and electricity suppliers have speeded up their
programme of replacing domestic prepayment meters by cashless or 'token'
meters, so removing a prime target for burglaries.

     Local crime prevention panels-each one assisted by the police crime
prevention department-identify crime problems and try to tackle them through
publicity, marking goods and equipment and fund raising to buy security
devices. The panels have been closely involved in setting up some 74,000
neighbourhood watch schemes in England and Wales. There are some 1,100 watch
schemes in Scotland.

     In 1988 an independent national crime prevention organisation, Crime
Concern, was launched to encourage local initiatives such as crime prevention
panels and neighbourhood watch schemes, and to stimulate business
participation in crime prevention. Crime Concern in Scotland was established
in 1989.

     In 1986 five local projects were set up with government support to see
how crime and the fear of crime could be reduced through action by local
government, private businesses, the police and voluntary agencies. As part of
the Government's Safer Cities projects, this model is being adapted for use in
20 inner city areas in England and Wales. Each project is led by a local
committee, drawn from local agencies and supported by a co-ordinator funded by
the Home Office. Four projects are also being established in Scotland. The aim
is to encourage local communities to devise their own crime prevention
activities. Similar projects are being funded by the Government in Northern
Ireland.

Strengthening the Law

     A number of measures to strengthen the criminal justice system have been
taken. The Drug Trafficking Offences Act 1986 and the Criminal Justice
(Scotland) Act 1987 provide powers to trace, freeze and confiscate the
proceeds of trafficking. Under the Acts a court can issue an order requiring
the offender to pay an amount equal to the full value of the proceeds arising
from the trafficking. The laundering of illegal money associated with
trafficking is unlawful. Because of the international nature of the problem,
the legislation also provides for restraint and confiscation orders made by
courts to be enforced against assets held overseas, and vice versa. These
arrangements apply to countries with which mutual enforcement agreements
have been concluded.

     Under the Criminal Justice Act 1988 a court may also make a confiscation
order against the proceeds arising from offences such as robbery, fraud,
blackmail and insider dealing in shares. A Serious Fraud Office with wide
powers to investigate and prosecute serious or complex fraud in En