|
Criminal Law Reform
“...because...the system is one of totally in [the] fulcrum of the criminal...the justice system per se is totally, totally corrupt...” then Northern Territory Chief Minister Denis Burke.1
The Crime Victims Support Association believes that the concept of law and justice is very much a vehicle of public participation.
History Professor David Lemmings of the University of Adelaide has stated2:
[At the time Australia was being settled] ordinary people tended to view the law as something which was their own, something which had developed over centuries and centuries, something which was based upon various fundamental statutes, such as Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights in 1689, something which was relatively unchanging and also something which they participated in. If we think about criminal law in 18th century England, when individuals were hanged, they were hanged in the midst of the local community. Individuals would be flogged at the cart's tail - they would be tied to a cart, flogged in public. Or they would be placed in the pillory and the local community would be invited to throw things at them - mud if they didn't feel too badly disposed towards the offender, rocks if they felt that the offender was certainly a criminal in the true sense of the word.  Of course the essential aspect of a participatory system of law is indeed being tried by one's peers, and individuals, as they are today, would be summoned to appear either as part of the grand jury - the jury [of twenty-three citizens] which would decide whether an indictment was a true indictment or should be thrown out as ignoramus, or they would be summoned to appear as part of the petty jury, the twelve men and true. This was perhaps the fundamental aspect of a participatory system of law. People felt that they had some stake in the law. Quite often when events occurred which they felt offended their notions of law, they would protest. So in other words there was a notion that law was not something which was handed down in tablets of stone from above, there was a notion that law developed from below, and law was communal in all of these ways.
The Crime Victims Support Association does not believe crime just happens and that there is nothing one can do about it. Crime statistics differ depending on the country and even vary per generation within the same country. We believe in cause and effect with regards to legislation relating to the rights of police in investigating crime and the rights of the prosecution and the defence in the criminal prosecution process. We also believe in democracy and the rule of law. Everyone should be equal before the law and the law should be absolutely nothing else than what the people request. For example in the criminal trial sentencing process, punishments should reflect the beliefs and values of the Australian people in general rather than any elitist minority segment of the population who may think they know better.
|
