The Australian criminal justice system's legal and law enforcement components

Australian Criminal Justice System

Formal mechanisms are required to make certain there is no bias or discrimination against the people. With informal mechanisms there was unfair treatment of the accused even to the point of receiving unjust sentencing. Those who had the power within the informal mechanisms often received the property or other goods once held by the accused, withhold evidence for personal benefit, or acted as vigilantes exacting their own justice (Lincoln and Robinson, 2010).

Social control is best managed by those that have been elected to oversee the management of the changing formats of punishment for criminal behavior. The formal mechanisms work best when connected with matters of state within society (Roach Anleu, 1998). One theory that demonstrates the interconnected relations is the Behaviorists Concept. This theory asserts that social control lies within governmental administration of what is considered a normal lifestyle through

Legislation, legal action and negotiation (White and Sutton, 1995) . The laws are integrated with the complexities of social relationships in terms of culture, morality, medical administration, and civil service. Punishment due to criminal activity is more attached to violators of the law, prohibit illegal activity, and establishing the guilt or sentencing of a prisoner.

Criminal Justice Components

Legal Component

The aim of the Australian criminal justice system under the legal component is founded on the decree that law and justice are independent of the judiciary system. The basic tenet is that all both native Australians and others within its borders should be treated equally in matters of law and their rights protected. So that people are treated fairly by the officials that have authority whether they are members state or national government. The rights to have an opportunity to face legal proceedings based on precedents and severance of powers are part of the foundation of the Australian legal system. The common laws originated in the United Kingdom. This is not the same as with other countries such as Europe, Japan or South America which have laws established from civil law that originated in Roman legal systems. Similar to Australia are other common law systems in India, Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the United States (Lincoln and Robinson, 2010). The basic difference with civil and legal systems are that the judges decree is privy to precedent cases of common law. The judgments are decided based on decisions from former cases.

Law Enforcement Component

The police force in Australia is organized as a national branch which is responsible for investigating federal offences such as illegal immigration and drug related criminal activity. In addition to criminal actions relating to national security or environmental acts. Each state within Australia and the North Territory has its own police force to handle criminal activity based on its own state or territorial law. The Capital Territory is under the Federal Police's jurisdiction.

The police forces have the responsibility of ensuring order in the communities and arresting those that have allegedly violated the law to have the matter resolved by the court system. The courts have the responsibility of deciding the guilt or innocence of the alleged criminal activity. The police have the duty of collecting some evidence and bringing the offender before the court system.

Crime Commission Component

In 2003 the National Criminal Authority was replaced by the Australian Crime Commission which is a statutory organization designed as an independent law enforcement entity that cooperates with the national agencies of law enforcement throughout the country. This is to oversee and coordinate national criminal activity related to organized crime or criminal networked activity. The role is to consolidate and collaborate all departments under an Intelligence law enforcement arm in order to deal with serious crime (Australian Government Dept. Of Foreign Investment and Trade, (AGD) 2011).

Court System Component

The states each have a supreme court that has authority over all the criminal courts. The next functional court level is the district sometimes known as county courts which has the role of handling serious criminal cases. The judge in these cases presides over the proceedings deciding the case that is heard by jurors of 12 that determine guilt or innocence of the accused (AGD, et al., 2011). The criminal offenses are tried at the district or county level. The types of criminal offenses tried include cases of murder, armed robbery, and rape (AGD et al., 2011). Criminal activity of a lesser nature is handled by local magistrates who preside within each community or city who hear the case and then give a ruling. All that are accused in Australian court system are innocent until they are proven guilty with reasonable doubt being the metric used to make the decision. Capital punishment is not a part of the Australian criminal system with no death penalty.

Confidence in Criminal Justice System

According to research conducted in Australia by Jones (Indehmar and Roberts, 2009), the confidence in the criminal justice system ranges from 30% to as high as 75% based on the various components. The confidence was high in accordance with the Court Component however lower in terms of the rights of the accused (Indehmar and Roberts, 2009). There were much lawlessness prior to the establishment of criminal justice systems in Australia. The bushrangers were bands of outlaws in the early 19th century traveled the land committing crimes of robbery, murder, and pillaging (Woods, 2002). The military force at that time was the only defense in many cases against attacks in the cities and small communities of Australian citizens. Attempts to organize policing agencies largely failed due to corruption based on members using their services to usurp advantages over others (Woods, 2002).

Criminal justice systems in society protect the rights of both the accused and the innocent. In the case of the accused, all people have rights according to the Australian Constitution of 1901 to receive fair and just treatment. In protection of the innocent those that have authority, wealth, position or power do not have the right to exploit the poor (Lincoln and Robinson, 2010).