Police Diversion in the England Criminal Justice System; Justifications and Examples

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 faculty of law shahid beheshti university

2 Faculty Member of Shahid Beheshti University Law School Director of the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology

10.22034/jlr.2020.184186.1433

Abstract

Police diversion has a long history in England as a means by which the police try to prevent low-level offenders from entering into the criminal process. In fact, due to its compliance with the Common law legal system and the governance of the accusatorial system over its criminal prosecution and the absence of the prosecution service, at least until a few decades ago, the police were considered as the main agency at the pre-trial stage and had almost most prosecution and diversion powers. Currently, it has major discretion in stopping criminal proceedings or preventing offenders from entering into the criminal justice system, which is referred to as the "out of court disposals". The police exercise these statutory and more discretionary powers in the summary and either-away offenses. The tendency of the country's penal system to police diversion has more historical, criminological, and pragmatic fundamentals. On the other hand, Iran's criminal justice system is based on Civil Law, and the polices are an executive under the jurisdiction of the judiciary and have not been given diversion power by law. However, they are taking some measures that can be termed police diversion. Police diversion is also facing challenges, most notably conflict with the principle of judicial punishment or principle of nulla poena sine iudicio.

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History

  • Receive Date: 18 September 2019
  • Revise Date: 05 January 2020
  • Accept Date: 28 September 2020

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