Crime Reduction - Helping to Reduce Crime in Your Area

The Criminal Justice Bill, which represents the most significant overhaul of the criminal justice system in a generation, has received Royal Assent. The Criminal Justice Act will modernise the system in favour of victims, witnesses and communities, by helping to tackle and reduce crime. This will stem from detection to rehabilitation, making punishment work more effectively.

The Act is particularly important for narrowing the justice gap and improving public confidence in the scheme for the prosecution. The Act responds to widespread calls for reform to update the criminal justice system, bringing forward a coherent, imaginative and balanced package of provisions.

The Act will introduce:

• measures to strengthen the police in their fight against crime and terrorism, and crackdown on defendants who reoffend on bail or fail to turn up at court

• measures to improve result in better prepared cases, with more efficient trials, modern technology helping ensure juries better reflect all sections of society

• measures to tackle jury nobbling to ensure that dangerous, organised criminals are brought to justice

• an inclusionary approach to evidence to help make trials a search for the truth, trusting juries and Magistrates to make a decision based on as wide a range of evidence as possible, while protecting the rights of defendants

• clarity and consistency in sentencing, setting out the purposes and principles of sentencing in statute for the first time

• tougher sentences for murder, sexual and violent offences, persistent offenders, firearms offences and dangerous drivers who kill

• imaginative and robust alternatives to custody that can be tailored to individual offenders and based on what is most effective in reducing reoffending.

The Act can be downloaded at:
Home Office - The Criminal Justice Act 2003