HSC Legal Studies - Effectiveness & Law Reform Outline

8/12/2019 HSC Legal Studies - Effectiveness & Law Reform Outline

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4- Effectiveness of the Law

4.1- Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Law in Achieving Justice for Individuals

4.1a- Equality

One of the most important aspects of our legal system is the concept that everyone is equal before thelaw. There are certain aspects that result in a lack of equality.

The fact that our legal system is adversarial is a major contributor. Because the nature of our legalsystem is competitive and confrontational, it is designed to determine where laws have been broken sopunishment can be dealt out. The legal teams employed are also seeking for winning cases, gainingreputations and are willing to project selective facts of a case only in order to win. Therefore, oursystem is not designed to seek the truth and equality is not achieved for the individual (offender.

Plea argaining is another factor that promotes inequality for the individual (victim and offender. !orthe victim, they are not being provided with the justice they seek for the offenders. "lea bargainingmay not be always used to that people who commit the same crime may be treated differently if one is

enters plea bargaining.

#oung people and $ndigenous %ustralians are other groups for whom the legal system seems unfair.Both groups do not understand their rights and the relationship between these groups and the policecreate a prejudice that these groups are likely to be doing something illegal when most of the time theyare breaking no laws.

4.1- Accessiility

The criminal justice system must be accessible to all members of society for it to be fair. &owever thisis hindered by'

!ost

To achieve justice, people need to mount a proper case and this costs money. egal rep is not aproblem for the wealthy who can afford their own legal rep and for the poor who are eligiblefor legal aid. %nyone who has a really good chance of winning their case and has a small incomehas a high chance of getting legal aid.

To reduce costs of the criminal justice system, many measures have been suggested.

)eregulating lawyers* fees and charges to improve competition %llowing law firms to advertise to improve competition

$mproving access and quality of legal aid $ncrease use of non+legal measures to reduce conflict

ecent se-ual assault case involving gang rape of /0 yr old girls, )"" agreed toenter plea bargaining and in return for guilty pleas, prosecutions didn*t mention aknife was used in the attack. This was done without knowledge of the victims.

"#$ Article %&&% 'article () I*+I,E*"PEPLEA/ELE""LI0EL2,E23AIL

%lmost half of all indigenous people in local courts have bail imposed on them forminor offences that wouldn*t warrant a custodial sentence if they were found guilty.1ost of the time, this bail is refused so they*re stuck in remand. This compares of

just over 2 of non aborigines. Therefore, it can be said that $ndigenous people arenot being given the same level of accessibility to the legal rep as their whitecounterparts and this is not fair.


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2ime

% major criticism of the criminal justice systems is the time it takes to finalise a conviction.)elays increase the time of uncertainty for victims and the accused and can cause manyproblems in achieving justice for the individual.

$ncreasing the trauma for victims

$ncreasing chances of witness unreliability )enying accused the right to freedom if they are on remand %llowing the media the chance to influence the outcome of the trial

3specially delays for people on remand. $ncreases legal costs and if found innocent, there is noway to repay them for the time they served.

)ue to competitive nature of the adversarial system in %us, both legal parties need to timemount a proper case and while thoroughness is good, time delays are a problem.

4ourts in 567 only open on weekdays for relatively short periods of time. egal resources remain idle of thousand of hours a year %t the same time, increase in criminal trials puts pressure on these resources The antiquated regulations and procedures of court drag out chances of quick

and efficient trial.

6olutions for these problems include' 1odernising court procedures 8sing court resources for longer hours and on weekends )eveloping %) mechanisms eforming the committal hearing process to speed up the trial

0nowledge of system and its rocedures.

4riminal system is very comple- and requires proper legal training to understand. 4onsequentlyboth individuals need help to understand legal process to have proper access to it. To mount aproper legal defence is e-pensive and many %ussies can*t do that but without it, the accused isreceiving an unfair trial.

"#$ Article 1556 'article %6)T$13)3%#6!O"3O"3$5486TO)#39433)$)3%// )%#6The ideal time standard of time delays for court trials for people on remand is // days.&alf are waiting 0 months:;< are spending between 0+/ months%bout half were acquitted when they went to trial.

"#$ Article 1556 'article %7) 4O8T6366%44366$B3)83TO$T$=%5T6>ueensland 4ourt of %ppeal ?ustice, ?ustice )avies said that frequent users of courts likecorporations are clogging up courts. They are able to claim ta- for litigation costs and this is notan incentive to use cheaper alternatives and thus, they are making court system less accessible toother groups who do need it. &e also said that adversarial court system is designed to becompetitive and focuses on winning so it obscures the advantages of using alternative methods

that might have an agreed solution. To improve fairness, ?ustice )avies suggested using courtappointed e-perts to make costs cheaper and fairer. &e also suggests judges, lawyers and lawstudents to be educated in an adversarial system of fair dispute resolution.


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!actors which influence the e-tent of knowledge a person may have in the legal system include' evel of education $ncome =eographical location %bility to speak 3nglish %ge

4.1c- Enforceaility

7hether or not the law can be enforced will have some bearing on whether an individual achievesjustice. $n civil law, is very effective and common to use 4?4s and other %) mechanisms but theyaren*t as common in criminal law. This is mostly co@ there is an issue of enforceability. Aictims may notbe as satisfied by the resolutions brought down by %) because they are less enforceable than onesbrought by the courts. But a similar system could be used to deal with minor offences.

1ediation is used in from jurisdictions in relation to juvenile crime. $n 5ew ealand and &unter Aalley,community youth caution centres were initiated and found to be successful. The victim and the accusedmeet and the victim tells them how they feel.

4.1d- /esource Efficiency

!or the criminal justice system to operate effectively there needs to be an efficient use of theincreasingly limited funds available. 6ome measures are needed to cut costs

4ontroversial practice of plea bargaining. 7hile it allows some criminals to getoff lightly and is not completely fair to other individual offenders, it does cut legal costsand time

!unds for the legal system are primarily given to the governments to administer justice via policeenforcement and their maintenance. Then the courts and the corrective services get some, and thenthe diversionary and crime prevention programs receive a very small budget in comparison. They shouldbe getting more than the others to effectively solve problem in the long run.

4.1e- Protection and /ecognition of Individual /ights

The accused and the victim both have rights however they are not always adhered to. 3nforcement ofthese rights comes down to those involved in the system to ensure that they are delivered. 6ometimesthe rights of the accused and the victim conflict and their needs must be balanced.

4ompetitive nature of the adversarial system is such that the prosecution and defence are moreconcerned with winning their case. The primary aim of the system is to win, not to arrive at the truth orachieve justice. 4onsidering this, it is not likely that the rights of the accused and victim can both beprotected.

8ictim Accused To have their case

reported and recorded The right to silence

To be allowed bail

+ietrich v 2he 9ueen 155%$n Aic, )ietrich was charged with several drug charges. egal aid only agreed to rep him if hepleaded guilty but he refused. 4onsequently, )ietrich went to court self+ represented but wasfound guilty and convicted. &e appealed to the &igh 4ourt to consider if an accused person hasthe right to legal rep. &igh 4ourt ruled in favour of )ietrich but found there was no automaticenforceable right to legal rep. 1ajority said legal rep in serious casesC minority said in all casesco@ without legal rep on both sides, it*s impossible to state a fair trial took place. %ll justicesagreed everyone had right to a fair trial.


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To be told of anyarrests and charges

To be informed of allhearing dates

To be protectedfrom the accused

To be informed ofthe progress of the investigation

To have all interviewsrecorded

To not have priorchargesD convictions detailed to the courtprior guilty verdict

The right to appealbased on a legal argument against convictionor severity of sentence

4.%- Law as a /eflection of !ommunity "tandards and E:ectations

>uestion' is the law a true reflection of community standards or of the standards that the media would

portray as community standardsE

The media continuously sensationalises stories, picking the most shocking and serious crimes and cases.This warps our perception of crime, thus raising community*s standards of crime. "erhaps, the lawswhich were created in response to this are not the true reflections of our standards.

4ommunity attitudes and standards constantly change over time. $5 /FFG, /FFF and ;;:, 567elections saw both major parties chasing the law and order vote by pushing legislations for harsherpunishments for criminals. &owever, there was little evidence to support that the community felt thiswas needed. On the other hand, the &oward governments approach on gun control in /FF0 after the"ort %rthur shootings was a law that truly reflected the community standards.

The judiciary may not always be in line with the standards of the community either. This is seen viatheir obiter dicta and rulings. 7hile they are required not to be biased, some are unable to do so.

"#$ Article 1556 'article 11)"O$43%35*T34O=5$6$5= $5)$A$)8%6* $=&T6%5)T&3#%35*TB3$5=%)&33)TO+7ood oyal 4ommission e-posed the credibility of police by accusing them of lying and distortingevidence

1agistrates and report have uncovered+scrum downs (police confer to refresh their memories of evidence which was often imaginary+verbals (police submit unsigned records and notebook confessions as evidence+falsely corroborating evidence+rejecting any evidence that might challenge the prosecution and falsely corroborate withevidence that will condemn the defendant

"#$ Article 1556 'article %()T$13)3%#%=%$5%5)6O13"3O"3T&33%3$55O435T)irector of 567 BO46% found the following'

+many innocent people are being kept in prison for more than a year. $t*s not fair for theseindividuals.+time delays are important problem co@ the longer the delay, the more likely a guilty person will beacquitted co@ people forget more details of event as time goes on.+1ean times for matters to go to trial is 0.H weeks for a guilty verdict and GG.I weeks foracquittals.


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4.%c- ortunities for Enforcement

Before /FI:, the police directed the prosecution of most summary and indictable offences. !ollowingcriticisms over their role in prosecuting matters, the )"" was established in /FI: and now their primaryrole is law enforcement. 5ow, )"" is responsible for indictable offences and the police handle summaryoffences via the police prosecutor.

%dvantages of the )"" inc. "rovides e-tra level of scrutiny of police case against the accused. 5ot all cases go to court and

)"" requires police to provide sufficient case before prosecuting 6crutiny process reduces number of cases that go to court whilst ensuring police are accountable

for their investigations

4.%d- ortunities for Aeal and /eview

$t is the right of any person who*s been convicted to apply got an appeal on grounds of' 6everity of sentence 5ew evidence 3rror in law

)"" also have right but can only appeal on leniency of the sentence.

$n ;;G, G: of H: appeals to go to &igh 4ourt from 6tate and !ederal courts were successful. $n 567,4ourt of %ppeal, /H of / were successful. But statistics can be misleading co@ only appeals that are

likely to be successful are allowed through.

1any alternate avenues for reforming the 4?6. 567 aw eform 4ommission "arliamentary 4ommittees oyal 4ommissions

They all undertake public hearings and submissions in which individuals and groups can have a say.ecommendations often inc what public says.

/ v + J Johns 155%

6% supreme court judge, ?ustice Bollens sated it was acceptable for a husband to use Jrougherthen usual handlingK to force his wife to have se- with him.

This was followed by a case a few years later in Aic where a judge said that when a woman said no,it may not always mean no.


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;ooming in on 8I!2I#hat should they e comensated for=

&ospital e-penses+ easy to quantify "ain and suffering+ harder to quantify suffering with money oss of e-pectation of life+ difficult because it*s even more insubstantial than pain and

suffering

>ho should comensate=

$n principle it should be criminal but often they are unable to pay. !inancial situation is often why peoplecommit crimes. 3ven if they can pay, it may harm their family. The other alternative is for =ov to paybut this would require raising ta-es to fund it.

Any legislation covering comensation=The Aictim*s 4ompensation %ct /FIH provides that victims that suffer actual physical harm can becompensated for'

"ain and suffering oss of enjoyment of life 1edical treatment ost earnings

"regnancy resulting from se-ual assault counts as physical harm.

nder Act who can claim and how much=

"rimary victims+ directly injured

6econdary victims+ injured from seeing or hearing of the crime4lose relatives of the victim who dies as a result of crime

4an claim a ma- of LG; ;;;. elative can claim more if there was more than one victim.

8nder act, who is it claimed againstE8sually the state pays but if offender is over /0 yr old the tribunal can collect some money from them.egulation hasn*t worked much as only .G< of claims made against criminals were paid.

7hat are other forms of compensationE Aictims can pursue civil action against offender $n 567, gov has introduced 4harter of ights for Aictims of 4rime. 6ome rights are shown

above table. Aictims can write victim impact statements to tell court how they*ve affected victim. But

victims find preparation of these a neg e-perience and se-ual assault counsellors are refusing tomake them.


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4.%- Evaluating the Effectiveness of Law in Achieving Justice for "ociety

4.%a- /esource Efficiency

?ustice is e-pensive to achieve and competes with other dept for funding. Therefore, it is prudent toquestion the efficiency of the system especially when the clearance rate is so low.

7e would judge the efficiency of each sector the legal system differently like' "olice judged based on clearance rate egal profession based on conviction rate 4orrection system based on recidivism rate

The money spent on legal aid is a small proportion of the law and order budget yet the spending of itsfunds is heavily criticised. The thousands of dollars spent by egal aid on $van 1ilat in /FF0 for thebackpacker*s trial was called a waste of ta-payer*s money. 1any would argue that 1ilat*s right for goodlegal rep was overemphasised compared to other legal aid cases. $t doesn*t seem right that one or twocases should be provided so much of such a small budget when others are rejected. $n this system, it isevident that justice is not being found for all individuals and society.

7- Law /eform7.1- Agencies of Law /eform

7.1a Law /eform !ommissions

Two relevant law reform commissions'%ustralian aw eform 4ommission

esponsible foro reforming federal lawo e-amining the mechanisms of fed judicial processeso ensuring that law are up to date with community standards

makes recommendations to gov and appro- HG< are adopted into legislation %ttorney =eneral refers issues to the commission

567 aw eform 4ommission established in /F00 and is oldest %us. law reform agency ole is similar to %us. law reform commission. &as and interest in individual cases %ttorney general refers issues to it

7.1- Parliament

$s the main law reform agency in %ustralia 7hen law reform makes a recommendationC parliamentusually enacts it into legislation. "arliamentary reform is also a reflection of the policies of thegovernment at the time.

7.1c- !ourts1ain role of the courts is to interpret and apply the law created by parliament. ?udges can change lawvia precedent but usually don*t interfere with parliament*s law making. 4ommon law is made up of a

judge*s decisions and they are used to accommodate for particular situations which the statute lawdoesn*t cover. These can cause problems in that it can be unpredictable and at times hapha@ard

/ v ?ernando and ?ernando 1557$T$643%!O1T&$6)34$6$O5T&%TT&368"3134O8T$5!83543)T&3)34$6$O5!O%4&%5=3$5T&3%7.The !ernando brothers were charged with the murder or a nurse. The police gained approval fromthe 6upreme 4ourt but they refused to supply its, claiming that if the police persisted to do so, itwould be assault. They appealed the decision.

567 4ourt of %ppeal agreed in favour of the defendants and overturned the decision. They cameto a ruling that Jin the absence of clear statutory or other lawful authority to e-cuse, no prisonershould be made to undergo nay form of medical treatment without consent.K This led to theintroduction of the 4rimes (!orensic "rocedures %ct ;;; (567.


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The public

The media=overnmental

inquiries

"arliamentary4ommittees

1"s

,rous they

target

7.1d- Loy ,rous

obby groups are collections of people with similar interests and with specific aims upon which theywish governments to act upon. obby groups try to raise public awareness of their cause and the higherthe profile of their cause, the more likely governments will listen to them and act upon their cause.

Enough is Enoughis a lobby group that has influenced law reform in relation to victims of crime.


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2he coroner

+investigates suspiciousdeaths and fires andrecommends changesto )"".+4oronial inquiriesemphasises weaknessesin the law.

mudsman

+investigates theadmin of govdepartments andrecommends changesto the gov.

/oyal !ommissions+ investigates areas on concern and makesrecommendations to gov. Theserecommendations are often publicised andtherefore, they are hard for the gov toignore.

ther Agencies

7.1e- ther Agencies

7.%- Effectiveness of Law /eform Agencies

The effectiveness of the law reform agencies varies in achieving law reform. The weakness of theother law reform agencies is that they rely on the parliament to either carry out recommendations ofto act upon judges* decisions. This occurs regardless of any influence they have on law reform.

One problem that concerns all reform agencies us the delays that occur before nay suggested reformsof the law actually take place. 3-ample of this is the recent reform to traffic fines in !ebD1arch. Theyare not e-pected to be in force for another 0 months.

Aictims* crime lobby groups also say that when a reform to criminal law is done, it is usually only donewhere there is political benefit to be gained.

7.@- !onditions 2hat ,ive /ise to the *eed to /eform

The law should reflect the conditions that e-ist in the present society. 4hanging conditions create aneed for law reform.

7.@a- !hanging "ocial 8alues

There is a public perception that crime is on the increase and this has inspired the gov to take a Mget

tough* approach to crime laws. This included' 1andatory sentencing for property crimes in 7% and 5T and mandatory sentences for certain

drug and summary offences =eneral increasing of prison sentences


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$ncreased role of victims and their families in the 4?6

&owever, changing community values have also led to decriminalisation of certain offences that werepreviously seen as public order offences and summary offences.

"rostitution (to a certain e-tent 4onsenting homose-ual se-

7.@- !hanging !omosition of "ociety

%nother imp driver of law reform is the changing nature of society itself.

There now is a great diversity of ethnic groups and law has been reformed to accommodate for thisdiversity especially in civil and family law.

aws in relation to burials have been amended to cater for non+4hristian religions. $nclusion of %boriginal law Taking into account cultural factors that may have an influence on the offender*s behaviour.

&owever, there has been little evidence of these changes in criminal law. 6uch adjustments are mostlyfound in sentencing.

To improve accessibility of the 4?6, interpretation services and other support agencies in the courtsare established.

There has also been on increase on social problems in society. 8nemployment and poverty have become major problems in the past ; years. This has led to

increase in associated crimes and the need for changes to welfare system. %t the same time there is also a boom of white collar crime, reflecting the increasing greed in

materialistic society. The swing in conservatism in our laws could also be due to the dominance of the ageing baby

boomers who were all brought up in a liberal era

7.@c- *ew !oncets of Justice

4hanging views of punishment have led to a movement away from harsh punishments for some offendersto a more meaningful and just punishment. This has come after recidivism rates have remained high.ikewise, for certain offences the concept of truth in sentencing is seen as more just by many in thecommunity.

One particular area of criminal that has attempted to be re+evaluated is juvenile justice. $n 567, aseries of acts were passed that aimed to force parents to be accountable for the actions of theirchildren.

4hildren ("arental esponsibility %ct /FFN (567o %llowed police to remove a child under /0 yrs from a public place with reasonable suspicion

that the young person was at risk or not subjected to supervision and control of responsibleadult.

o equired parents to attend court and take responsibility for the actions of their kids untilthey were /I yrs. $f the child was acquitted and then reoffended then the parent would befound guilty of an offence.

o aw was evaluated in /FFH. eport was critical of the overall objectives and recommendedthe act be repealed co@ it was not an appropriate or effective way to deal with juvenilecrime. %lso, it infringed basic human rights of young people.

4hildren ("rotection and "arental esponsibility %ct /FHH (567

o $n /FFH, the 4hildren ("rotection and "arental esponsibility %ct replaced the 4hildren("arental esponsibility %ct /FFN (567.

o 1any old provisions included in this act inc parental responsibility


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o "olice were only allowed to remove young people from public areas that the %ttorney=eneral had declared Moperational*.

#oung Offenders %ct /FFH (567o $t is imperative that young offenders don*t become stigmatised as Mbad* or Mcriminal*. )oing

this would risk young people taking on the behaviours or attitudes associated with thesenames

o $t is better for offenders and victims if they make the situation right by reconciliation andrestitution.

o This led to enactment of #oung Offenders %ct /FFH (567. "rovides for a graded systemof alternatives to court comprising of'

"olice warnings "olice use discretion to give a warning for minor offences committed by young

people. The offence must not involved violence and must be in the Minterest of justice* !ormally recorded and offenders may be warned more than once.

"olice cautions =iven if warning can*t be given or if the police believe that it*s in the Minterests

of justice*, to be deal with another way.

%ct provides a number of provisions to protect the rights of the young offenderinc.

o "olice required to e-plain heDshe is entitled to legal adviceo "olice e-plaining the nature of the offence and the cautiono Offender is given official notification of caution and /; days to change

their mind about admitting to the offence.o 5o additional punishments

#outh justice conferences 8sed if cautioning is not appropriate %im is to ensure that young people who are accused of an offence accept the

responsibility for their actions while at the same time, involving their families. They acknowledge and include victims and take into account their interests

7.@d- ?ailure of E:isting Law

aws fail and become obsolete for various reasons inc changes in' 6ocial values and morality "olitical agendas %ccess to social welfare %vailability of technology

7hen they are obsolete, they must be amended, replaced with new legislation or repealed. $t*sparliament*s duty to do this.


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7.@e- International Laws and !onventions

To affect the rights of %ustralian citi@ens, international laws must be enacted by parliaments into domestic law judges declare the law to be part of domestic law. This can occur if the court believes there is

a gap in domestic law. 3.g. it is incomplete or ambiguous so the courts may consult internationallaw to determine domestic law.

7hen 4ommonwealth ratifies an international treaty it creates an international obligation to it. $t isthe responsibility of the fed gov to ensure that state and territory gov are not in breach of this

obligation and must do all in its power to rectify situation.

Two e-amples of this'

/ v *adruu 1556 3)TO4&%5=36TOT&34$136%4TO5$66836O!B%6$4%5)6"34$!$A4$5T35T.$n /FFH in %4T 5adruku was acquitted of an assault charge. The court accepted that he was sodrunk that he neither knew nor intended what he did. The decision was based on a ruling from v

O*4onner (/FI; in the &igh 4ourt.

$n v O*4onner, the principal authority the &igh 4ourt had before it was )"" v 1ajewski from the&ouse of ords. $n that case, the judges self+induced into-ication is relevant and must be takeninto account when there is specific intent but not when there is basic intent.

The distinction between the two termsBasic intent+ offence that requires an intention to perform it (striking a person + manslaughter ifthey die6pecific intent+ requires intention to achieve a specific purpose (striking a person to death+murder if they die8nder the 1ajewski case, a person who beats someone to death when grossly into-icated couldstill be found guilty of manslaughter. 1any countries* common law and policies are influenced bythis case*s approach inc %ustralia

The &igh 4ourt rejected 1ajewski and ruled that if the prosecution can prove beyond reasonabledoubt that the person had the necessary mens rea during offence then self induced into-icationcan be accounted in any criminal charge.

The justices in a majority in the O*4onner case believed that it was a basic principle of commonlaw that a person be found guilty of a crime only if they fulfil the elements of a crime. One judge

believed that classification of crimes into basic or specific intent was inappropriate and obscureas it was inconsistent with these principles of common law.

3ven before the 5adruku case there already were changes to the law. !ollowing a recommendationfrom the 6tanding 4ommittee of %ttorneys =eneral in /FFN to adopt the 1ajewski approach overO*4onner+The commonwealth legislated with this approach for the 4riminal 4ode %ct /FFG+567 inserted a new part //% into the 4rimes %ct in /FFH.

/ight to rivacy under Article 16'1) of the International !ovenant on !ivil and Political /ights

$n /FFN, the 85 &uman ights 4ommittee accused the Tas gov of being in breach of an internationalobligation. 6ections / and /: of Tasmanian 4riminal 4ode were in breach of article /H(/ of the$nternational 4ovenant on 4ivil and "olitical ights by criminalising any se-ual contact between men.

$n response the fed gov enacted the &uman ights (6e-ual 4onduct %ct /FFN (4wth. $n 4roome vTasmania /FFH, the &igh 4ourt held that Tas act was inconsistent with fed law. %nd using section //F ofthe constitution, the law was made invalid.

#andatory "entencing- adults and Buveniles

$n early ;;; there was a debate with the political and legal community and media as to whether

mandatory sentencing is in breach of %ustralia*s obligation under the $nternational 4ovenant on 4ivil and"olitical ights and 854O4. 1any former judges and senior members of the 567 judiciary havecondemned the legislation.


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7.@f- *ew 2echnology

Technology has improved methods of criminal investigations and interrogations which has meant 5ew laws must be made to protect rights of accused and the legal system.

o 3lectronic surveillance also governed by laws to protect individual freedomso %dvances in forensic science have led to tabling of new laws to allow forcible taking of

)5%

Technology has also created a new means of commissioning e-isting crimes or the creation of newcrimes.

$llegal interception 3lectronic vandalism and terrorism+inc hacking Telecommunication piracy+inc theft of copyright material Telemarketing fraud+ppl use phone to offer bogus investment opp or charity requests %ssaulting ppl by threatening to infect with %$)sD &$A virus

These new crimes have mean new laws need to be created to address them. $n /FF; 567 gov amendedsection :0 of the 4rimes %ct /F;; (567 to make it an offence to maliciously causes to attempt tocause another person to contract a grievous bodily disease. This came after reported assaults with asyringe filled with blood infected with &$AD%$)s.

1any offences are also specifically for cars, inc driving in a manner or speed dangerous to the publicwhile other relate to using a crime to commit crimes. $ncluding menacing driving and predatory driving.

+*A testing

The 4rimes (!orensic "rocedures %ct ;;; (567 allows for police to collect samples of saliva, hairandDor blood for )5% testing. %nyone who is convicted and is sentenced to imprisonment for a seriousindictable offence with a possible ma- sentence of G yr will be tested. $nc offences like robbery andbreak and entry. $f you*re under /I or if you are over /I and refuse testing, police need a court order.$f you refuse with court order, it*s an offence and you can get up to / months detention.

% specially trained officer collects sample and they video it. 6ample is taken to )epartment of &ealthfor testing. Our legal rights can be found via legal aid hotline. )5% are compared with samples at crime

scenes and used assist in unsolved cases and kept for new crimes.

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HSC Legal Studies - Effectiveness & Law Reform Outline

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