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6 - Decisions and Narratives: Factfinding and Case Construction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2021

Tim Hillier  and
Gavin Dingwall
Tim Hillier
Affiliation:
De Montfort University
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Summary

In the public imagination, the criminal trial is the culmination of the criminal justice process, the overriding purpose of which is to acquit the innocent and convict the guilty. As Michael Naughton writes:

If you were to ask the ‘person in the street’ what he or she wants from the criminal justice system, the reply is more than likely going to be that it should convict the guilty and acquit the innocent; and, if it should happen that an innocent person is convicted in ‘error’, then most people would probably think that the appeals system should operate to overturn the conviction in a speedy fashion to reduce the harm that was caused to the victim and his or her family and friends and restore the legitimacy of the criminal justice system. The idea that the criminal justice system should be about convicting the guilty and acquitting the innocent is reflected in political statements about how the system should function and it is transmitted in portrayals of wrongful convictions and wrongful acquittals in the media. (Naughton, 2009, p 17)

The process starts with the allegation or discovery of a potential criminal act and proceeds through investigation and the gathering of evidence. Along the road to the criminal trial is a series of decisions to be made, gates through which the defendant must pass: Has a crime occurred? Is there justification for an arrest? Is there a basis to press charges? Is the decision to prosecute justified?

Gottfredson and Gottfredson (1988) argued that there are two types of decisions – those made by individuals and ‘agency or institutional decisions’ – although many individual decisions are informed by agency/institutional policy. So, for example, the decision of an individual prosecutor whether to proceed with a prosecution will be governed by agency and institutional requirements.

The Code for Crown Prosecutors provides the following:

2.2 It is not the function of the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] to decide whether a person is guilty of a criminal offence, but to make assessments about whether it is appropriate to present charges for the criminal court to consider. The CPS assessment of any case is not in any sense a finding of, or implication of, any guilt or criminal conduct. A finding of guilt can only be made by a court. (CPS, 2018)

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Criminal Justice and the Pursuit of Truth , pp. 103 - 122
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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