Review: Criminal Justice Act 2003: A Guide to the New Procedures and Sentencing, Blackstone's Guide to the Sexual Offences Act 2003, Women in Charge, Policing Gender and Leadership, Unhappy Dialogue: The Metropolitan Police and Black Londoners in Post-War Britain
| Author | Rob R. Jerrard,Kim Stevenson,Owen Kelly,Brian Rowland |
| DOI | 10.1350/pojo.77.4.347.58961 |
| Published date | 01 November 2004 |
| Date | 01 November 2004 |
ROB R. JERRARD
Book Reviews Editor
www.rjerrard.co.uk
REVIEWS
CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT 2003: A Guide to the New
Procedures and Sentencing
Bryan Gibson, with the assistance of Michael Watkins
Waterside Press, 2004
ISBN:1904380077; price: £16.50 RRP UK
Reviewed by Brian Rowland
As the title makes clear, this text is a Guide to the Criminal
Justice Act 2003 and can be no more than that. Its sheer
immensity ensures that court officials and lawyers will burn the
midnight oil endeavouring to trace their way through the mine-
fields the Act is destined to create. Those responsible for appeals
and law reports will certainly see their workload increase as
tussles develop over the many complex issues that seem certain
to arise over the draftsman’s efforts. As new statutes pour out
from Parliament with different names, it becomes increasingly
difficult for all those connected with the criminal justice system
to keep a check on the law. It is not good for justice and it can
only serve to stoke up still further the public’s perception of the
fear of crime. The criminal law has always seemed to be in need
of consolidation rather than having a plethora of differing
nomenclature.
The Act brings just about every arm of the criminal justice
system within its orbit and, as inevitably there is some overlap,
different arms will interpret the matters relating to them in
various ways. It would seem to be necessary for all bodies to talk
to each other with a view to reaching common procedures. The
matters relating to the admissibility of hearsay evidence and of
bad character have further opened the door to a long-needed
reform of the whole field of the laws of evidence in criminal
cases. Any such opening is, of course, fraught with difficulties. It
is only human nature for the side presenting any evidence to put
the best possible perspective on what it is producing. Police
officers are all too often accused of gilding the lily, but one has
to spend only a short time in any criminal court to realise that
everybody is guilty of such practice, from the judges to the
accused. The trick will be to devise a way in which a foolproof
The Police Journal, Volume 77 (2004)347
presentation can be made to pass even the most intense scrutiny.
One way might be for all evidence to be led without any
restrictive rules and for assessors to sit with the judge or
magistrates. In any such reform the evidence of experts needs to
be much more closely examined. When expert evidence is going
to be led it can always be contradicted by the other side. All too
frequently such evidence of opinion clouds the issues, partic-
ularly in high-profile cases. The one aspect that certainly needs
examining is that which allows expert witnesses to be in court
while their opposite number is giving evidence.
The arrangement that will allow custody officers discretion
as to which possessions of a detained person should be recorded
is not without its dangers and will ensure that sensible and
conscientious custody officers continue to safeguard themselves
by continuing to accurately record what is found on a person.
The law relating to custody officers in any case is of concern.
Responsibility is thrust mainly on the Sergeant rank, who have
continually drawn attention to the lack of training they receive
for such an onerous task. Gradually the tide is turning and one
sees an increasing use of non-police personnel being employed
in custody suites. Perhaps the time is not too far distant when
such areas are wholly cut off from police stations, with a
separate body dealing with detained persons.
The idea of turning the street into a mini-police station for
the purpose of bail, particularly in this more turbulent society,
does not seem very sensible. It is submitted that very few police
officers in large cities know the addresses of other police stations
and the admission to bail out on the street on a dark night in
pouring rain, with the administrative requirements laid down,
does not seem like a good idea.
One move regarding bail that will meet with universal
approval is that provided by s. 16 of the Act, which allows a
prosecutor to appeal to the Crown Court against the decision of
magistrates granting bail. The doubt that sometimes seemed to
exist as to where bail was granted in the first place has been
clarified.
It is a pity that the initiation of process by way of informa-
tion and summons has been limited to only named prosecutors.
The laborious process many police officers had to undertake in
bygone days to submit an application to prosecute an errant
motorist for causing an unnecessary obstruction always seemed
cumbersome and, to many thinking police officers, wholly unrea-
sonable, particularly when they contrasted that with the swift
procedure of charge and bail for those arrested.
348The Police Journal, Volume 77 (2004)
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