Charter and the Criminal Process (From Criminology: A Reader's Guide, P 196-224, 1991, Jane Gladstone, Richard Ericson, et al., eds. -- See NCJ-128696)

• NCJ Number: 128704
• Author(s): K Roach
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 29 pages
• Sale Source: University of Toronto
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: Canada

Annotation

This study reviews the literature on what Canadian courts have done and should do in administering defendants' legal rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982).

Abstract

Studies indicate that approximately two-thirds of the cases brought under the Charter pertain to the conduct of law enforcement officials. A scrutiny of these cases shows that they have done little to influence police behavior. Still, cases brought under the Charter have exposed some police investigative practices. A significant caveat, however, is that judicial adjudication of pretrial conduct may not produce an accurate account of what happens on the streets and in the station houses. The Charter has not only failed to achieve changes in police behavior, it has not attained significant reform in sentencing practices or prison conditions. Thus, from a liberal, reformist perspective, the Charter has both potential promise and potential dangers. It can be used selectively to reveal inequities in the system and to obtain some court-mandated law reform. The danger even within the reformist framework is that the Charter will be viewed as a panacea that renders criminal justice reform the exclusive domain of court litigation, while ignoring legislative and administrative mechanisms for reform. 104-item annotated reading list