Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Preface to the first edition of ‘The Machinery of Justice in England’
- Abbreviations
- I Historical introduction
- II Civil jurisdiction
- III Tribunals
- IV Criminal jurisdiction
- 19 Courts with original criminal jurisdiction
- 20 Coroners' Courts
- 21 Courts with appellate criminal jurisdiction
- 22 The process of prosecution
- 23 Criminal procedure
- 24 The process of sentencing (including probation)
- 25 Juvenile courts
- 26 The matrimonial jurisdiction of magistrates – the Domestic Court
- V The personnel of the law
- VI The European dimension
- VII The cost of the law
- VIII Law Reform
- Appendix A The Report of the Civil Justice Review
- Table of Cases cited
- Table of Statutes cited
- Table of Stationery Office publications cited
- Index
22 - The process of prosecution
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Preface to the first edition of ‘The Machinery of Justice in England’
- Abbreviations
- I Historical introduction
- II Civil jurisdiction
- III Tribunals
- IV Criminal jurisdiction
- 19 Courts with original criminal jurisdiction
- 20 Coroners' Courts
- 21 Courts with appellate criminal jurisdiction
- 22 The process of prosecution
- 23 Criminal procedure
- 24 The process of sentencing (including probation)
- 25 Juvenile courts
- 26 The matrimonial jurisdiction of magistrates – the Domestic Court
- V The personnel of the law
- VI The European dimension
- VII The cost of the law
- VIII Law Reform
- Appendix A The Report of the Civil Justice Review
- Table of Cases cited
- Table of Statutes cited
- Table of Stationery Office publications cited
- Index
Summary
As far as the courts are concerned, a prosecution is begun when someone ‘lays an information’ – that is to say, when someone makes a formal complaint to the magistrates. But this is obviously only part of the story. Going backwards in time, before an information is laid, someone has to make the decision to do this, and before making the decision someone will have carried out an investigation. Moving forwards in time, laying an information is only a very early stage in a prosecution, and many other steps must be taken before the prosecutor and the defendant get their ‘day in court’ at which the defendant pleads guilty or not guilty, and on conviction is then sentenced. Some of these earlier steps are carried out by the police, and others by the Crown Prosecution Service. The way in which responsibility is now divided up between these two bodies is something which has only recently come about, and it is necessary to give some account of the recent historical background.
In most countries the police investigate and a public prosecutor who is separate from the police then carries out the prosecution if there is to be one. In England, on the other hand, the position was until recently far more complicated.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Jackson's Machinery of Justice , pp. 213 - 254Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989