Magistrates In The Criminal Justice System Essay

From doing activity 1.1, it is obvious that the magistrate has a large influence in the criminal justice system in the 18th and 19th century. By looking at the photograph, we can assume that the magistrate is wealthy; as we know from the readings they tended to be prominent local citizens. Further, we can assume because of this, he is from a higher class. This is also evident through his clothing and the way in which he is displayed on a brightly coloured pink chair. When I think of vibrant colours in this time, I think of wealth, and being the magistrate we know that these exchanges would often happen in the magistrates house. As made evident in our readings, the class system was an absolute fundamental to how crime was understood during

For instance, these magistrates were known citizens in the local area, not trained professionals. This sets up the whole legal system to be unprecedented and essentially give the magistrates a free for all, the ability to do what they want to do with no reprimanding on their part. They were simply not held responsible for wrong doings, however were held so highly in the criminal justice system and had so much power. This is why it is not surprising that eventually, lawyers and trained professionals started to appear in the criminal justice system to give both sides an equal playing ground. Prior, whatever the magistrate said, simply was followed. This was too much power for a single individual dealing with a case, and often the guilty was not heard, believed, or even given a chance to show their innocence. As discussed in unit one, lawyers were crucial in advocating for the accused. Following the idea that the magistrate was unprecedented, there were no real rules for him to follow. For instance, the magistrate was the sole person responsible for deciding whether or not a case even went to trial. The magistrate could throw a case out for lack of evidence, or if he believed it was done out of spite. Regardless, the magistrate held too much individual responsibility for deciding these actions. This led to the criminal justice system being heavily