NCJ Number
73708
Date Published
1980
Length
140 pages
Annotation
This collection of papers presents data and preliminary findings from a 1978 study for four Magistrates' Courts in Melbourne, Australia over a 4 1/2-month period.
Abstract
Data were collected by project members through court watching and recorded on special data sheets. Criminal defendants were not interviewed. Two of the papers in the study describe the historical development of the Magistrate's office in the Australian State of Victoria, as well as the current functions of Magistrates in the court system and the independence of the office. Other papers discuss the study's methodology, trial and sentencing prosesses, the relationship of defendant's socioeconomic status to sentences received, and the relationship of sentences received to whether the case was heard before a Magistrate or a Justice of the Peace. Among the findings of the study is that the major duty of the Magistrates' Courts are brief, with only one witness appraring, and acquittals are rare. Low status defendants and those who were shabbily dressed were more often sentenced to imprisonment than their higher status, better-dressed counterparts. The acquittal rate was not found to be related to whether a case was tried before a Magistrate or a Justice of the Peace, but Justices of the Peace tended to be more lenient in sentencing than Magistrates. Recommendations for reform of the system were not advanced, because many of the failings of the system observed during the study were attributed to stratification in Australian society rather than to flaws in the justice system. Appendixes present cases that observers felt were typical of particular courts, observations on granting new licenses to those previously convicted on drunk driving charges, a case study of the criminal trials of some political protestors arrested in late 1977, and a breakdown of some of the data collected by the court watchers. Footnotes and data tables are inlcuded.