Crown Profession Service Essay

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Recommended: Roles and responsibilities of the police within the criminal justice system

This assignment will illustrate issues within the Crown Persecution Service and how the issues have impacts on the effectiveness of the organisation.

The Crown Persecution Service (CPS) is a non-ministerial government department and they are responsible for prosecuting criminal cases, which are investigated by the police in England and Wales. The CPS is a Director of Public Persecution (DPP) who is answerable to the Attorney General for England and Wales. The Attorney General is accountable to Parliament on matters of policy in relation to the work of the CPS. The CPS was founded under the Prosecution Offences Act 1985; the establishment of the Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure was shortly after that in 1981. Before the Prosecution of …show more content…

One of the roles of the police includes detection and investigation of criminal offences. When a crime is reported the police investigated the crime and if they gather enough information they pass it to the CPS to decide whether or not to prosecutor the case. The CPS must be satisfied there is strong evidence to provide ‘realistic prospect of conviction’. A realistic prospect of conviction is viewed as an objective test, in the view of the CPS the magistrates or a jury, properly advised on the law, are more likely than not to find the defendant guilty. Even when this principle is applied, there are innocents who get convicted. Ashworth and Redmayne (2005) argue how there should be strict safeguard not to proceed to court unless there is sufficient evidence. In this way, the court will not make the mistake of convicting an innocent person as well as reducing the stress for the prosecutors and they will save time in this process. The police use-to-use ‘prima facie test’ and this was use to assess if the available evidence would be acceptable to result a conviction by a reasonable jury or magistrates’ court. The CPS uses a code to see if the existing evidence can provide a ‘realistic prospect of conviction’ and if it’s reliable enough to be used in court. The code states that a “case which does not pass the evidential stage must not proceed, no matter how serious or sensitive it may

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