Criminal Justice System Essay

The criminal justice system is exceptionally effective in ensuring just outcomes for victims, offenders and society. The criminal justice system is the framework of rulings and laws that aim to protect community members and their property and determine the criminality of certain events and punish criminal offenders through a process developed to achieve justice. The criminal justice system is composed of three complementary parts, the criminal investigation, the criminal trial and sentencing and punishment all of which work collectively to achieve just outcomes for victims, offenders and society, where justice is seen in that all people are subject to the same laws and the same consequences for breaching those laws. Such a system is held back

Sentencing and punishment are reasonably effective in achieving just outcomes for individuals and society when a strong consideration of all aspects of a case goes into the sentence. Miscarriages in justice are able to be resolved through a strong framework of law reforms as well as the important role of the victim and society in sentencing. However, the system presents various flaws that create injustices in sentencing that negatively impact individuals and society such as the lack of consideration of all factors in a case. As seen with the R v Skaf (2002) case, in which for violent gang rapes, Mr Skaf was sentenced to 55 years imprisonment and 40 years parole which would see that society would maintain confidence in the system as well as be protected from reoffending, despite this just outcome an appeal reduced his sentence significantly to see him released after only serving 14 years, an obvious miscarriage of justice for the victims of the crime as well as society. Such a ruling highlights the flaw in the discretion of the justice system to consider the aggravating and mitigating circumstances as well as the extent of the crime in determining the fairest outcome. Despite the injustice, the criminal justice system in light of the nature of the case, passed the Aggravating Crime Sexual Assault in Company Act which sees mandatory sentencing put in place for violent crimes such as Skaf’s, a just use of law reform with mandatory sentencing promoting the rule of law between offenders. Despite the flaws in the system, sentencing and punishment is very effective with appeals often serving a crucial purpose in the preservation of justice as well as the use of Victim Impact Statements under the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act (1999). The