In November 2019, Policing Insight launched The Police Student, a content stream designed to support degree-entry recruits to the police services. Written by our Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly, this content explores the syllabus that police students will encounter, providing accessible articles that can support their study.
This chapter of our Police Student series will look at the way that our criminal justice system works, why it works the way that it does, and why that matters for student police officers. It begins by discussing the nature of the system, its principles and its purposes. Then, step by step, we’ll take student officers through each part of the system in turn: from the way that police act as a gateway to the wider system, and prepare cases for court, to the history of the Crown Prosecution Service and their decisions to prosecute.
We’ll look at courts, sentencing and every stage of an offender’s passage through the criminal justice systems – including an in-depth look at the youth justice system, at restorative justice, and at the role of non-state actors such as charities. Finally, we’ll look at trends, issues and likely future changes, and how that will affect you as police officers.
At each point in the series we’ll be looking not just at what each part of the criminal justice system is meant to do, but at the problems and issues within each, how differing goals and purposes might affect how agencies work in partnership, and why the system might not always work seamlessly.”
Dr Carina O’Reilly,
Academic Editor
At each point in the series we’ll be looking not just at what each part of the system is meant to do, but whether it’s working properly. And we’ll ask some big questions – is it fulfilling its purposes? Are those purposes the right ones? And why does this matter to you?
As well as being invaluable for those embarking on a police career, the topics covered are also informative for anyone with an interest in policing and criminal justice.
Following previous series on ‘Evidence-based Policing’, ‘Key Issues in Contemporary Policing’ and ‘Criminology in Policing’, we have now launched The Police Student’s latest series – ‘Understanding the Criminal Justice System’.
In the first in this new chapter of The Police Student series – Understanding the Criminal Justice System: Introduction – Carina sets out the key issues for this chapter – how our criminal justice system works, why it works the way that it does, is it fulfilling its purposes, and why that matters for student police officers..
There then follows an informative series of monthly articles looking at aspects of ‘Understanding the Criminal Justice System’:
- The police
- The Crown Prosecution Service and defence lawyers
- The courts
- Sentencing
- Prisons
- Probation
- Restorative justice
- Youth justice
- Non-state agencies
- Trends and issues
How can I access The Police Student?
You can access all of The Police Student articles here. The content is for subscribers only; however, most UK police forces and relevant academic institutions have organisation-wide access to Policing Insight, so students, researchers, officers and staff are likely to have free access via their police force and/or academic institution.
Just register for a free account on Policing Insight using your organisation email address, and your account will be upgraded automatically to subscriber access.
If your organisation doesn’t subscribe, please contact us at [email protected]; we are talking to and adding new organisations every week. Find out more about subscribing here.
Other ways Policing Insight can support your study
Over and above The Police Student, Policing Insight is a valuable resource for police students with articles covering the latest thinking, research, policy and practice in policing.
The ‘Weekly academic summary‘ brings you the latest research publications relevant to policing, criminal justice and crime, and our Media Monitor service is a daily brief and a searchable database with curated links to news, opinion, analysis, research and reports from mainstream and specialist media as well as from policing and criminal justice agencies and government.
Be sure to sign up for the Daily Brief and Weekly Digest newsletters to keep up to date!
Find out more about how Policing Insight supports police students here.
