Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
12.5.2
Changes in the Judicial and Corrections Systems
Historically, many cities developed their own systems of justice, with courts and
correction systems for those who transgressed against the laws. As larger state enti-
ties emerged, these parts of the justice system became controlled by the apparatus
of the state, or some regional subdivision in federal systems. Hence the local of-
fices that provide the delivery of justice—whether through the enactment of most
laws, the court system itself, and the correctional facilities—are merely local arms
of the national state or some provincial or state authority that attempts to provide
one system for all its residents. However there are greater differences in the values
and organization of justice systems in particular between countries, such as the ad-
versarial system in English-speaking countries, mainly with lay juries responsible
for verdicts, compared to the inquisitorial system, with judges making decisions
as used in Italy. So adopting a single approach to removing existing problems in
judicial systems is difficult. Yet in recent years dissatisfaction with the results of the
typical top-down, remote justice system, of whatever form, has led to an increasing
number of initiatives at a city and even local community level, designed to try and
solve particular problems at a more local level. These often use restorative justice,
rather than retribution justice approaches, although such initiatives have to get the
approval of the state system before they are allowed to operate. Four in particular
are proving effective.
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Balanced Representation
Increasing moves have been made to create representative judges, by gender, eth-
nic, age balances, to decrease remoteness and increase fairness, ensuring a judge-
ment by peers. A British House of Lords Constitution Committee (HLCC
2012
)
study of judicial appointments and numbers recently revealed that of the 3,694
judges in England and Wales in 2011, the majority were white males from a narrow
social class. Only 22.3 % were female but this had risen from 10.3 % in 1998. The
proportions of Black or Asian minority ethnic origin, was still very small, at 5.1 %
compared to 1.6 % in 1998. The committee report stressed the need to increase these
minority proportions of judges substantially and also to ensure that more come from
under-represented parts of the city, rather than from only the richer areas or from
particular social backgrounds. The practice of having lay local magistrates in the
U.K., which provide the initial review of crimes and deal with low level offences,
sending serious crimes to crown courts presided over by trained judges, has always
tried to ensure greater local representation of the population and has a less biased
pattern. More generally, in countries without strong state judicial oversight, magis-
trates in local courts, just like small local police services, are always prone to being
unduly influenced or even corrupted by crime syndicates. In many countries with
weak democratic structures the judicial system is often run by associates of the rul-
ing party, ensuring there is little independence, leading to many injustices, an issue
that has to be resolved if a fair system of justice is to occur.
