Criminal Justice

Crime control and due process are two different ideal types of criminal justice. One could say they are extremes on a continuum. The role of crime control is to get the criminal off the street and to protect the innocent. The due process model of criminal justice is like an obstacle course, you have to keep going through legal obstacles to ensure in the end you convict the right person. In Canada the police lean toward crime control and the courts lean toward due process. This causes tension between the police and the courts. I will argue for both crime control and due process, putting more weight on due process If we did not have due process in Canada, people in positions of power, could manipulate the system for their own personal or political gain and railroad the innocent off to prison.

One of the benefits of due process is demonstrated in the Belshaw case. The inquisitorial system of justice is based on crime control; the Swiss police had a hard time in Canada with Mr. Belshaw, because of his right to due process, under Canadian law. Both systems of justice share common beliefs, for example, they both look for proof beyond a reasonable doubt. In Canada we fight about facts and laws, where-as the inquisitorial system searches for the facts. The adversarial system has a separation of powers with the police, crown, defense, and the judge. It is quite different for the inquisitorial system of justice, the police do the arrest, then they present the facts to crown, which then decide if they have a case and turn over the evidence to the judge. The only problem is that the judge decides what will lead them to the truth. How any evidence was collected is irrelevant. In due process if the police obtain evidence and violate the law or a persons charter of rights and freedoms the judge will exclude the evidence from the hearing, even if it would help or prove that the person is guilty. These two systems of justice are generated in democratic traditions.

In the case of Alois Dolejs the crime control model, was swift and took the criminal off the streets. The police had a lot of circumstantial evidence, for example, bloody cloths and two different types of blood. On the advise of his attorney, he was instructed not to disclose the location of the bodies, until after the trial. His silence was what got the conviction that sent him to prison. The police didn’t know that he had actually committed the crime. Due process could of set a guilty man free.

The Case Of Susan Nelles. This case is a good example of what effects the crime control model of justice can have on an innocent person’s life. The police reacted to the deaths with a crime control mentality. The police prosecuted a woman on the basis of their biases and emotions. The sad part is, even though Susan was entitled to due process, it destroyed her life and consequently killed her father. The right to remain silent is protected under the charter, and the due process model of justice. The police leaked the story to the press, to publicly tri this woman. A principal fear in the due process model came to light. An innocent person was harassed and convicted not in a courtroom but publicly; this is a clear case of, a miscarriage of justice.

The James Keegstra case is a good example of a weakness of due process; this case has been going on for too many years. The charter of rights and freedoms, section 2.b guarantees us fundamental freedoms of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other means of communication, but as in this case, those rights are not absolute.