POLS 3300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Youth Criminal Justice Act, Formal System, Omnibus Bill

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLS 3300
• Professor: Charmain Derferd

Document Summary

The canadian criminal justice system (cid:862)the for(cid:373)al (cid:272)ri(cid:373)i(cid:374)al justi(cid:272)e s(cid:455)ste(cid:373) is a (cid:272)o(cid:373)ple(cid:454) (cid:374)et(cid:449)ork of i(cid:374)depe(cid:374)de(cid:374)t, (cid:271)ut pro(cid:272)edurall(cid:455) (cid:272)o(cid:374)(cid:374)e(cid:272)ted police, prosecutors, courts, correctional agencies, and parole boards. It costs government at all levels at least (cid:271)illio(cid:374) a (cid:455)ear. (cid:863) (cid:894)auditor ge(cid:374)eral of ca(cid:374)ada, 2002(cid:895) Key responsibilities: law enforcement and crime investigation: prevention of crime, administration of justice and court processing, punishment of offenders. The criminal justice system is a complex network of independent actors (such as the police) and agencies (such as the correctional service of canada), that have diverse goals and mandates, but also must work together. Responsibility for a single case is divided among many different decision-makers, that sometimes have different mandates. Similarly, the police have the responsibility to investigate and charge for crimes, while the crown prosecutor has the responsibility to ensure that justice is done, which may or may not involve the prosecution of a crime.