Criminal Law - Criminal Convictions and Sentencing

A criminal conviction will occur when a court of law finds a defendant guilty of a crime and comes to a final verdict. An acquittal is the opposite of a conviction. There are some flaws in the criminal justice system and ocasionally innocent people are convicted and guilty people are actually acquitted. This is why appeals have been put in place to avoid and mitigate this problem, if and when it arises. A mistake made by the criminal justice system that results in a conviction of an innocent person is known as a miscarriage of justice.

After a defendant is convicted, the court in which they are tried in, will make a decision about the most suitable sentence in the form of a punishment. However, some convictions can lead to ramifications outside of the sentence which is given, this is called collateral consequences of criminal charges. Such convictions can be called minor convictions, which are in really only just a warning conviction and does not really affect the defendant. A person with several convictions on their record will have more collateral consequences of the criminal charges, and a history of convictions are call antecedents or 'previous' convictions. Despite minor convictions not affecting the defendant too much, they still show on a person's record as a previous conviction.

A defendant is sentenced by a judge after they have either pleaded guilty to a criminal offence or been found guilty of a criminal offence following a court trial. A judge or a magistrate will make the decision as to the suitable sentence for the defendant's offence that they committed, by taking into account different important factors, including the facts of the case, the maximum penalty and any sentencing guidelines punished. The law relating to the criminal justice system is largely found in the Criminal Justice Act 2003.

The Criminal Justice Act 2003 has aimed to provide understandable and more variable sentencing guidelines.The act has included the purposes of sentencing; the principles behind sentencing, for example, the reduction in sentence for a guilty plea, the principles relating to previous convictions and offences committed whilst on bail, and statutory aggravating factors; terms relating to different types of sentence and when they may be applied; terms relating to the sentencing of dangerous offenders; and provisions in relation to release of offenders.

The 2003 Act also sets out the maximum sentences for specific offences, the most severe penalty a court can grant and the maximum sentences all depend on the seriousness of the offence. For offences such as murder, robbery and some sexual offences, the maximum sentence is life imprisonment. These maximum penalties are meant to be applied to the most serious and extreme criminal cases and it is the judge or magistrates duty to decide the suitable sentence for the offence that the defendant has committed.

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