Crown Prosecution Service Research Articles

Psychiatric in-patients, violence and the criminal justice system

SummaryThere is ambivalence about prosecuting psychiatric in-patients for violent offences. This ambivalence is reflected in the Memorandum of Understanding that exists between the Crown Prosecution Service and the NHS Security Management Service. This has led to an unwelcome change in practice when the police ask for information from an individual's consultant psychiatrist, the police requesting information about the individual's cognitive abilities at the time of the alleged offence and using this to make decisions about prosecution. However, there is also guidance on this area from other sources. We describe this and make further suggestions for dealing with these requests.

An ‘ethos of mutual support’? The relationship between the police and the CPS

In a speech to the Superintendents’ Association in 2010, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) said that the relationship between the police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had never be...

'This is not Justice': Ian Tomlinson, Institutional Failure and the Press Politics of Outrage

This article contributes to research on the sociology of scandal and the role of national newspapers and, more particularly, newspaper editorials in setting the agenda for public debate around police accountability and miscarriages of justice. In previous work, we analysed how citizen journalism framed news coverage of the policing of the G20 Summit, London 2009, and the death of Ian Tomlinson (Greer and McLaughlin 2010). In this article, we consider the next stage of the Ian Tomlinson case. Our empirical focus is the controversy surrounding the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decision not to prosecute the police officer filmed striking Tomlinson shortly before he collapsed and died. We illustrate how the press's relentless agenda-setting around ‘institutional failure’, initially targeted at the Metropolitan Police Service, expanded to implicate a network of criminal justice institutions. The Tomlinson case offers insights into the shifting nature of contemporary relations between the British press and institutional power. It is a paradigmatic example of a politically ambitious form of ‘attack journalism’, the scope of which extends beyond the criminal justice system. In a volatile information-communications marketplace, journalistic distrust of institutional power is generating a ‘press politics of outrage’, characterized by ‘scandal amplification’.

Ethics of Prosecution

This article considers the amount of discretion involved in the decision to prosecute in England and Wales against the “legal ethics”, the conduct rules of the respective professions – the Code for Crown Prosecutors, the Solicitors’ Code of Conduct and the Code of Conduct for the Bar. The new Crown Prosecution Service of the 1980s used the test of “a realistic prospect of conviction”. Mansfield and Peay suggest this requires “prosecutors to possess qualities more akin to soothsayers than lawyers”. The operation of the Codes of Conduct is crucial in such an environment. Specific observed breaches of the Conduct Code are considered against the nature of the Conduct regime and any change in climate or culture of prosecution which the Crown Prosecution Service has been affected by or adopted. The article ends with a discussion of the need for prosecution decisions to be made with “detachment and balance” and it may be necessary for an independent advocate to consider such issues as an essential component in fair and responsible prosecution.

Domestic violence: The facts, the issues, the future

This paper initially describes the organisation of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), then deals with the volume of work undertaken by the CPS, before focusing on domestic violence. Although criminal, it is only in the last decade that domestic violence has been taken seriously as a criminal justice issue, with many offences being previously brushed under the carpet as a so-called ‘domestic’. Statistics of the effects of domestic abuse on children are provided. Sexual assault often accompanies domestic violence, which can also end in death. It is still thought that a large number of domestic violence offences are not reported to the police. Stalking is a related problem. While there have been important steps forward, and the criminal justice system is working hard to address this issue, more still needs to be done. Some ongoing issues include the willingness of victims to attend court and the pressure they might come under to retract statements. However, new and more successful methods of gathering evidence are cited in Norfolk and Suffolk, where prosecutions are now well above the national average.

Right to die?

Medicine changes—not just in the accumulation of scientific knowledge but in the responsibility the profession has to acknowledge the expectations of society and adjust our attitudes and behaviour accordingly. Just as rigid opposition to all change is wrong-headed, so too is uncritical bending in the breeze of public opinion on matters of high ethical and clinical complexity. One such area where society is said to be changing and where, in turn, the medical profession may perceive a pressure to change, is that of assisted dying and euthanasia. Hardly a week goes by—at least in the British press—without the subject being aired. Reform is called for, of our laws relating to euthanasia, and of the position of medicine and of the medical ‘establishment’ (often seen as a pejorative phrase in itself). The progressive media argue with a single voice in favour of change. Commonly, such press coverage concentrates on one individual, of his or her story of suffering, desire to die or be killed, and consequent battle with ‘the system’. One such person, a sufferer with multiple sclerosis, is Ms Debbie Purdy. In 2008, Ms Purdy, anxious about the consequences of asking her husband to help her travel abroad for legal euthanasia, should she so choose in the future, requested the Director of Public Prosecutions for the Crown Prosecution Service of England and Wales to set out the circumstances in which her husband could be prosecuted. The Director of Public Prosecutions refused her request, a decision ratified in the Court of Appeal, but then turned over in her further appeal to the House of Lords. Mr Keir Starmer QC was therefore required ‘to prepare an offence-specific policy identifying the facts and circumstances which he would take into account when deciding, in cases such as Ms Purdy’s, whether or not to prosecute’. …

Policing protest: An authoritarian consensus

In July 2010 the Crown Prosecution Service announced that there would be no criminal charges brought against the police officer alleged to have caused the death of 47 year-old newspaper vendor Ian ...

Is Financial Crime a 'Crime', Proper so Called? A Study of the Legislative Developments in Sanctioning 'White Collar Crime' and an Assessment of What the Future Holds for Financial Fraud

“We do see market abuse - of which insider dealing is the highest profile aspect …[as] a financial crime - it may not attract the immediate moral outrage of a violent crime against a person but it is, in our view, and the view of the UK government, a serious white collar crime with potential sentences of up to 7 years imprisonment … We have not yet used our power to prosecute insider dealing as a criminal offence and we recognise that effective deterrence involves ensuring both that people fear being caught [and] they fear the consequences of being caught … but we also see the risk of criminal convictions and custodial penalties playing a real part in that.” Margaret Cole, Director of Enforcement, FSA addressing the American Bar Association (October 4, 2007). This study seeks to provide an analysis of, the current legislative, institutional and regulatory structure in the United Kingdom (UK) for punishing those who are regarded to commit ‘financial crime’,1 and more broadly what is commonly referred to as ‘white collar crime.’ This paper will therefore focus on the approaches taken to define ‘financial crime’ in the English law context, including the legal attempts over the years to criminalise ‘white collar crime.’ It will also highlight the difficulty that authorities have faced in pinning down financial crimes over the years. Further, the study will also delve into the institutional framework that has been devised to combat ‘financial crime’ over the years. These include: the Crown Prosecution Service, the Serious Fraud Office, other statutory regulatory bodies such as the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Department of Trade and Industry which has since been renamed the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR). This commentary will demonstrate the challenges that these institutions have gone through in a bid to address financial crime and that the Government has prioritised addressing the problem of financial crime; hence the multiple legislative and institutional responses directed at alleviating the problem. The study will also examine the legislative framework that has been directed at fighting white collar crime and pinpoint the challenges in the development of the criminal law and sanctions dealing with white collar crimes. It alludes to the diverse approaches advocated by various scholars over the years to address white collar criminality. This study will analyse what impact the new Fraud Act 2006 may have on the fight against white collar crime in the UK. The paper is primarily focussed on the UK jurisdiction and may in certain instances examine the European and US practices regarding financial crime.

Rape – myth and reality: no ordinary crime

Rape – myth and reality: no ordinary crime

A Study on The Change of The Relationship Between the Police and the Prosecutors since CPS(Crown Prosecution Service) establishment in England

A Study on The Change of The Relationship Between the Police and the Prosecutors since CPS(Crown Prosecution Service) establishment in England

Risk of prosecution higher for those who assist a suicide.

NURSES COULD be prosecuted if they help patients take their own lives, guidance from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirms. Nurses who assist a suicide are specifically highlighted in the guidance. They are named in the section that highlights any scenarios where there is a higher likelihood of prosecution.

Assisted suicide guidance wins support of palliative care nurses

Nurses could be prosecuted if they help patients to take their own lives, guidance from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirms.

Piloting PTWI--A Socio-Legal Window on Prosecutors' Assessments of Evidence and Witness Credibility

This article presents original empirical data generated from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Pilot Evaluation of pre-trial witness interviewing (PTWI) in England and Wales. Section 1 introduces the PTWI Pilot and describes the methodological strengths and limitations of our qualitative socio-legal study. Forming the richly documented empirical core of the article, Sections 2-5 identify the principal considerations which seemed to influence case selection for Pilot interviews. An overlapping collection of evidentiary, strategic and circumstantial factors encouraged prosecutors to resort to PTWI, whilst other, countervailing considerations were apprehended as disincentives. Assessments of witness credibility were central to prosecutors’ attempts to balance these competing factors. Section 6 concludes by underlining the potential of qualitative socio-legal studies to promote more nuanced understandings of criminal process, and by extension to make practical contributions to evidence-based criminal procedure reform.

Neo-Nazism, Holocaust Denial and UK Law

Neo-Nazism, Holocaust Denial and UK Law

Status epilepticus in the law courts

Status epilepticus in the law courts

Prosecuting inpatient violence: perceptions of staff, patients and others in a women's enhanced medium secure service

This paper seeks to explore the perceptions of both staff and patients to the involvement of the Criminal Justice System (CJS) as a response to physical assaults committed by patients. Even though the ‘zero tolerance’ policy advocates the prosecution of perpetrators of violence, problems can arise when attempting to take legal action against psychiatric patients as the displaying of violent behaviour can be due to their mental illness. Nevertheless, the impact of an assault on victims, including both patient and staff members, can be detrimental. To the best of the author's knowledge these issues have not been investigated in a women's enhanced medium secure service (WEMSS). The conclusions drawn from this research are that the majority of respondents perceived the involvement of the CJS as crucial to maintaining high levels of morale among patients and practitioners, as well as assisting in deterring patients from committing subsequent assaults. However, police reports illustrated reluctance on the part of the Police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to prosecute inpatients.

Straight There No Detours: Direct Access to Barristers

Modernity unsettles professional certainties. For four centuries the Bar has enjoyed many privileges (Prest 1986) but there has been a hollowing out of its professional core as its reserved areas have come under threat. The gradual erosion of the referral aspects of barristers’ relationships with solicitors and others exposes barristers to the contingencies of the market in a raw form not usually experienced. The rising intervention of the state into the lawyer-client relationship through the control of the legal aid budget is accelerating these moves. These are moves to bureaucratic control and potential proletarianization (Larson 1977: 232). The Bar is losing its grip on its professional project. Or is it? Muzio and Ackroyd (2008: 49) argue we are not observing the end of professionalism but rather various defensive manoeuvres by professionals to maintain their privileges. How does the rise in direct access work fit with the changes in the Bar? In part it has to do with what Boon and Levin (2008: 77) described as “'he legal services market has a multitude of sites in which different norms proliferate.' Barristers occupy many positions outside traditional private practice. They are in business, government, the Crown Prosecution Service, and even inside solicitors’ firms. And when we add to the mix an increasing diversity of professional members in gender and ethnicity, common cultural values change and may not hold. This is reinforced by the division in work at the Bar between those who largely undertake publicly aided work and those who act for private clients. Barristers paid by the state operate under considerable control in terms of what they can do and what they can charge for their labour. No equivalent constraints fall on private client practitioners: they function within the market. Further controls are imposed by chambers arrangements which are becoming more corporate in focus. Chambers are increasingly specialized in their practice areas. They target potential lateral hires, including groups of practitioners, and establish business targets, all of which compromises the ethic of individuality espoused in the Bar. Although the fusion of barristers and solicitors is unlikely to happen, the introduction of Legal Disciplinary Partnerships in 2009 has opened up the organization possibility for the conjoining of the two. And when alternative business structures make themselves known, any conventional arrangements might begin to fail. Alternative business structures will seriously affect numbers and structures within the legal profession and increase the employed section of the legal profession. We suggested that up to a thousand law firms could fail in competition with supermarkets and other legal service providers. Barristers too will be affected. With these eventualities direct access work grants the possibility of holding onto traditional values and procedures. Prest (1986) is clear that the settling of the referral structure of the Bar did not come into being until the 19th century, so that an earlier paradigm of professionalism for the Bar encompassed direct relations with clients. Attorneys and solicitors stepped in when geography made it difficult for clients. Direct access recaptures these pre-modern ideals of working. But perhaps of more significance is that barristers can situate themselves more centrally in the market through doing direct access work. Their potential for control over their work and professional relationships is enhanced.

Prosecuting Domestic Violence: New Solutions to Old Problems?

Drawing on empirical data gathered at two courts in the north of England, this paper examines the administration of courts and the occupational cultures of practitioners and court staff running domestic violence trials in the magistrates' courts. The paper evaluates the practical outcomes of recent moves by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to improve conviction rates for these cases and the impact this has had on victims of domestic violence who are reluctant to give evidence. The resultant discussion examines the role of domestic violence victims in the decision to prosecute. It is argued that no radical alteration of the present system of trials in England and Wales is required to fulfil the expectations of these victims, but rather occupational cultures must be adapted to civilise that system, treating domestic violence victims as contributors to and participants in the process rather than as representatives of a particularly difficult and problematic source of work.

Extradition looms as the ‘fires of hell’ burn for Gary McKinnon

At the time of writing, the NASA hacker Gary McKinnon, who reportedly perpetrated the biggest military hack on record, was awaiting a decision from the UK Crown Prosecution Service on whether a recently signed confession, along with his diagnosis with Asperger's syndrome, would help him to avoid extradition to the US and a potential 70 year prison sentence.

A longitudinal study of the adoption of an activity‐based planning system in the Crown Prosecution Service of England and Wales, United Kingdom

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the adoption of a time‐based activity‐based costing (ABC) information system in resource planning (ABP) in the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) of England and Wales, a public service organisation in the United Kingdom, for the period of 2000‐2005. The aims of the study are to provide a technical review of the ABP application and to explore roles of the ABP system in achieving a “fairer” internal resource allocation and an improved understanding of business processes.Design/methodology/approachThe CPS's experience of adopting an ABP system is explained through the use of a case study involving interviews, observations, work shadowing and archival data over a period of six years, 2000‐2005. The longitudinal nature of the study has enabled the researchers to align the outcome of ABP adoption with concurrent organisational changes.FindingsThe study reveals that the growing understanding of the intrinsic links between business processes and the ABP information and its rationale, which remains unchanged throughout various phases of organisational changes, has promoted a sense of stability amongst CPS staff members.Practical implicationsThis study provides an in‐depth understanding of the practical use of ABP and its evolving roles in the face of the changing organisational environment.Originality/valueThis research discusses the prerequisite of the ABP system, a time‐based ABC system, and the evolving roles of ABP from a cost‐effective planning tool to a stability mechanism in face of constant organisational changes. This experience is invaluable to companies and practitioners seeking to implement a cost‐effective planning tool.