The Criminal Justice System

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The key agencies

The Criminal Justice System ("CJS") includes six key agencies:

  • the Police
  • the Crown Prosecution Service ("CPS")
  • the Youth Offending Teams ("YOTs")
  • the Probation service
  • the Courts (there are two layers: Magistrates' Courts and Crown Courts)
  • the Prisons Service

Why do we call it the Criminal Justice System?

Do they all really work together?

In the old days, they did not. This is supposed to be changing. Since 2003, each area has had a single Local Criminal Justice Board ("LCJB") where all the key players from the six CJS agencies sit together: the Chief Constable, the Chief Crown Prosecutor, the Chief Probation Officer, and so on. This Board is supposed to take action to make the whole local system work more smoothly and effectively, so as to prevent crime and to get more successful prosecutions. There are three LCJBs in Intercom's area: here are links to their websites. Dorset and Avon and Somerset have small sites hosted by central government.

How well are the LCJBs performing for us?

Equality and Diversity are not close to the top of the agenda for any LCJB as far as we know. Devon and Cornwall is doing better than the other two, in our experience: at least their LCJB now has a Diversity Sub-Group, with skilled LGB/T community representation. There has been some progress, thanks largely to the commitment of the Chief Probation Officer who chaired the Diversity Sub-Group in 2005-2006, but the key topics---responding to the actual level of phobic crime and achieving more effective co-ordination between the CJS agencies on LGB/T community needs---are still waiting to reach the top of the agenda, we think.

Michael Halls Mar-Ann McFarlane Andy Hunt & Mayor of Plymouth, LCJB Award

Devon & Cornwall Local Criminal Justice Board: Presentation of award to Intercom for best example of partnership-working across the Criminal Justice System. Andy Hunt, The Lord Mayor of Plymouth, Michael Halls, Mary-Ann McFarlane, Chair of the LCJB and Chief Probation Officer. November 2006.

What ought the LCJBs to be doing?

Intercom believes the LCJBs should consider why so many phobic crimes are not being reported, face up to the reasons for this, whatever they may prove to be, and (a) remove the barriers to reporting, (b) get the police, CPS and Courts systems working together to improve the rate at which reported incidents turn into successful prosecutions, and (c) develop area-wide strategies (or even a single peninsula-wide strategy) for reducing phobic crime. Thanks to our own work and our partnerships with other LGB and Trans groups in the peninsula, we at Intercom have a good deal of experience about all these points. We know where the wheels are squeaking and action is needed.

How does the system operate when it comes to phobic incidents?

As a rough rule: when an incident is reported, it's the job of the police to listen, investigate, and find evidence. The police then work with the Crown Prosecution Service (the CPS) to decide what kind of crime, if any, has taken place.

If the incident is found to be unlawful but not a crime (a "tort"), we recommend that the police refer the complainant to any local LGB/T community advocacy service, or refer the complainant direct to a skilled and LGB/T-friendly solicitor who can help the victim take their case to the County Court or a tribunal, whichever is appropriate.

If a crime has been identified, the police work with the Crown Prosecution Service to decide if the evidence that has been gathered is strong enough to be taken to Court. If the CPS decides that the evidence is strong enough, they then decide whether it is in the public interest for the case to go to Court.

In a very important document the CPS has stated that wherever a crime is motivated by homophobia or transphobia it is expected that it will be in the public interest to take it to Court, provided of course the evidence is strong enough in the first place. (See Policies: the CPS below.)

Good evidence is vital!

It too often happens that a crime can't be taken to Court simply because there isn't enough good evidence of what happened. This is immensely frustrating for the victim and their family, and also for ourselves, and for the police and CPS and Courts. We all want to see victims of phobic crimes getting justice, and a higher proportion of phobic incidents coming to Court. Good evidence is vital, and we all need to understand what we can do to help the police and the CPS build a better stronger case. Have a look at our page What Could I Do About An Incident?

Policies

Policies: the CPS

The most important Policy on phobic crimes in our view is the Crown Prosecution Service's Policy and Guidance on prosecuting crimes with a homophobic or transphobic element. These two documents were written by senior CPS lawyers and officers with a lot of community input. They were launched by the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions at a big public event in 2001. Intercom is proud to have had a seat on the CPS Working Group which originally wrote these documents, and to have delivered a keynote speech at the launch.

Key points of these two documents:

  • The CPS has put in writing a solid and active commitment to prosecute homophobic and transphobic crimes
  • The CPS has committed itself to working with the community sector, and with the rest of the CJS, to reduce phobic crime
  • The CPS has committed itself (and they are now trained) to liaise with the local police in phobic crime cases so as to ensure the best evidence available is gathered and brought to them and if all goes well presented to the Courts
  • So long as the evidence is good enough to prosecute, the CPS says that they will normally regard it as being in the public interest to prosecute a phobic crime
  • The CPS will challenge any attempt by the accused to plead "homophobic panic" as a defence, and will work with the police to find evidence to test any such claim by a suspect
  • The CPS regards phobic crime as so serious that in a case where a victim of a phobic crime has been involved in committing a relatively minor offence (e.g. cottaging) the CPS will not as a rule regard it as being in the public interest to prosecute the minor offence if that meant that the phobic offence was likely to go un-prosecuted
  • On the title-pages the Policy and Guidance refer to "Crimes with a Homophobic Element", but it is carefully explained at the beginning of the Policy that this is simply for shortness: the content of the two documents covers homophobic and transphobic motivation equally. The Trans members of the original Working Group approved of this decision about the title.

This Working Group was reconvened in Spring 2007 for the purpose of revising the Policy and Guidance and bringing them up to date. As always, Intercom has enjoyed playing its part and working with the CPS. A new version of the Policy and its Guidance will be available soon. If you would like to know more, please contact Michael at Intercom. To read the current versions of these two documents, go to Policy and Guidance.

You may also like to have a look at Section 20 of the CPS Instructions for Prosecuting Advocates, which gives clear guidelines to make sure that LGB/T people and phobic crime issues are properly handled in Court. Intercom is again proud to say that we contributed points 1-10 in Section 20 paragraph 3, drawing on our experience in helping victims of phobic crime and watching their cases go through the Courts system.

Policies: the Courts

There is an important document called the Equal Treatment Bench Book, which is the official handbook for all Courts in England and Wales, setting standards about respecting all the different minorities, being aware of individual and community needs and expectations, and general diversity issues. We think the sections on gender-identity and sexual orientation are generally very good.

(Mind you, they use an odd phrase about transsexual people's "apparent" identity: surely they mean "true identity" or "legal gender"?).

You can read the Equal Treatment Bench Book online.

Policies: the Police

The most important police policies for us all are the local ones written (or not yet written) by individual police forces. However, there is a national policy from ACPO (the Association of Chief Police Officers) called Hate Crime: Delivering a Quality Service. Good Practice and Tactical Guidance. ACPO thanks 47 different organisations for helping to write this document, but not one of these is community-led: in fact, they're all police forces or other public bodies. We think that this document would have been more useful to the police service if ACPO had started by consulting the LGB/T (and BME and Disabled) community-led sector about what we know about the relevant issues.

ACPO have a Race and Diversity Strategy from 2003, which is now significantly out-of-date. However, they do at least refer to " Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities" --- thats a really cheering plural! It's good to see someone recognising that we are not one single homogeneous community where everyone has identical concerns and needs! But it's not a very interesting or useful document in itself, alas.

On the other hand, ACPO does have an excellent policy document on key Transgender issues called The Gender Recognition Act 2004: Guidance for Police Officers and Staff, which has been widely circulated and used across England and Wales. (This document originated with Devon and Cornwall Police and was written with significant involvement of local Trans people in the South West peninsula.)

Local police forces

For detailed information (and opinions!) regarding your local police service in the South West, click on these links to our local pages:

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