Lesson video

Hello again, and welcome back to another citizenship lesson.

Now, as always before we start today's lesson can you please make sure that you have done the pre-learning quiz and that you have some materials to writing with today.

You are going to need access to the internet as well so make sure that you've got that to hand.

And once you've got all that let's get started with today's lesson, does law in the UK need updating? Now, what I want to do is go back and recap some previous learning that we've done in this series of lessons.

I'm giving you a little bit of a scenario here, so Robert who is 15 has been arrested on suspicion of robbery, he has been charged with stealing a mobile phone and money from a younger boy.

Now there's a couple of questions I want you to consider him.

So first of all, can you write down what do you think on the brief intermission I've given you are the key facts about this case that needs to be considered whether or not that this case should go to court? And then which court would you put this in? So in previous lessons we've looked at the court structure which court do you think this would be assigned to? But within this scenario what other pieces of information do you think is important? And also would any other information in this scenario change your mind or make you question whether or not you have the right answer on the right court? So, first thing I'd like you to pause the video here and put down the key facts for that little scenario which court would it go to and whether or not you believe you need some more information.

Okay, so if I'm looking at this case if I'm a lawyer and I've got this case in front of me there's a couple of things here that I want to consider.

First of all, Robert has been arrested on suspicion of robbery.

Now robbery is a serious offence so you may have put here that he should go to the crown court.

However, what you also need to consider is the fact that Robert is 15.

So this court should go to the youth court because now this is some new learning which we are going to look at today.

The youth court looks at any individuals between the ages of 10 and 17, and it's designed to give them a different experience of the justice system.

We're going to have a look at how the youth courts and the adult courts differ.

But first, what is the point of sending somebody that is between the age of 10 and 17 to court and then perhaps punish them in a way where they are detained.

In order find out whether that's necessary the crown prosecution service, the CPS decides if the case should go to court or not.

Now with youths, the CPS have to use a youth specialist.

And they look at the evidence and they look at the person's background they look at where they've grown up, they look at the person's characteristics and then they make a decision based on a two-part test whether or not they should prosecute, so whether or not they should send that person to court for trial.

The first thing they consider is whether or not they believe they've got enough evidence to prove without doubt that the person committed the crime.

Remember in a criminal trial, you have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this crime took place by the person accused of that crime.

So they've got to make sure that any evidence they've got is acceptable, that it's able to go to court, and that, that evidence that they present will get a conviction.

Secondly, they've also got to look at whether or not it is in the public interest to take a young person to court.

Now crimes happen every day.

Now, if you've got younger sisters, or siblings in the house, if you've got younger brothers and you've had a player fight technically that might be assault but it's not in the public interest to take you to court.

However, if you do that out in the street if you've targeted somebody, if you've done it on purpose and you wanted to hurt somebody, then of course it would be in the public interest to punish that individual just like you would an adult.

Now we're going to move on to how the courts look different.

So how does the youth court differ to the crown court and why does it differ to the youth court? Well, the crown court here is used for serious crimes so this is for adults, and you've got a couple of key characters here so you've got the witness, you've got the judge, you've got the court clerk, you've got the solicitors for the prosecution and the defence, you've got a jewellery, you've got the defendant the person accused of the crime, and you've got all the characters here like the ushers, journalists, and the public gallery.

Now in the youth courts that doesn't always translate so the key characters there could be the same but there's lots of people that are missing.

In these court you can see here straight away it looks very, very less formal.

So it's designed to be less formal for the defendant's purpose.

Now the criminal justice system treats children young people differently from adults.

If they are under the age of 18 they will be heard in the youth court.

Now the defendant here will have his or her identity protected, so that name will not be disclosed outside of the court.

So the solicitor will know the person's name, that judge, or the magistrates that are sitting in the court will know the defendant's name, but outside there is no press that can leak that information.

When you look at this you can see that there are no wigs or gowns worn by the judge or by the solicitors or barristers that are in court and that's designed to make it less formal.

We've got to look at that this person is in court for a reason and that they've done something wrong but also we've got to make sure that they understand what's going on.

So it's not just a case of bringing somebody to court if they don't understand what the process then will they actually understand the impact of their crime.

So it's designed to be less formal, there is no public gallery here, so there's no jury, there is no public viewing platform to watch like you would be as a right to go into a crown court to view criminal proceedings, The defendants call by their first name as opposed to Mr. or Miss whoever.

And that's again to lower the formality and so the defendant knows that they're talking to them.

Youth court are dealt with differently in court compared to adults because they need that element of simplicity.

If they're under the age of 16 their parents or guardians must attend court and so you can see it here in the picture the defendant's mother has gone with them to court.

But as we've said there's no wigs, there's no gowns and the level of formality is lowered.

And you might think is that a good thing or is it a bad thing? If they've done something wrong should they be treated the same as an adult? Or is it right the fact that the court has gone to such limits to make them understand the process and to reduce the formality.

Now, I'm going to show you a quick video here on how the youth court looks in practise.

And it's important that you get to see that because once you see the court you can see that it is quite different.

So we're going to go back to our scenario that we looked at with Robert and we're going to introduce him to the court itself.

Welcome to the youth court this is room is rarely seen outside of cases as it has no public gallery and operates a lot less formally than adult court.

I'm from the Youth Offenders Team often referred to as a YOT or YOT My role in this court is to offer advice and to liase between the youth appearing in the court their parents or guardians, the court representatives, and their lawyers.

Whilst I'm not legally qualified I do have relevant experience and qualifications in youth justice.

I must break myself acquainted with the defendant on the case before it starts which allows me to discuss the case knowledgeably with the district judge or the magistrates.

So, as I start the question what would you say should be the main aim of sentencing for young offenders? Now we've looked at the purpose of punishment and the aims of sentencing young offenders.

So again, just pause the video here for just a couple of seconds, consider the question, Should we look at punishing young offenders? Should we look at rehabilitating young offenders? Or should we look at reparation? Okay, I'm going to say that the main purpose here is to rehabilitate them to correct their behaviour and rehabilitation is the number one aim when sentencing a young offender.

This has because they've still got time to change so you've got time to train them, you've got time to teach them and perhaps lead them away from the life that they've chosen.

Well, look at the facts of this offence in a little bit more detail to understand why Robert has been punished and why Robert has been brought to court.

Actually our main goal is to rehabilitate the young offender and to stop them re-offending.

Hi, Robert, Hi, Janey Ready to go? This way.

While we go to the court why don't you acquaint yourself with the facts.

Yeah, okay.

The instance on this occurred at school.

What the hell.

Jut give it, give it to me.

Well, give it, there is a present- The new one.

A present for me, I bet you have got some money for me bro don't you.

Don't you.

Robert this is a very serious case, you understand that? Yeah.

Your actions were caught on CCTV and you've accepted that you were guilty.

Is that correct? That you do understand that threatening violence to another child while you steal from him is a serious offence.

You're 15, but you've been in trouble since you were 12 years old; stealing from the corner shops, shouting and swearing, then throwing bricks as a shop window.

You've received a number of formal warnings and being made to do reparation.

You're also truanting from school, why are you behaving like this? I promise it won't happen again.

Do you understand the effect that your behaviour is having on your latest victim? I'm really sorry.

The boy is too afraid to go to and from school and go out on his own.

In sentencing Robert, I have to consider all the aggravating and mitigating factors put to me by the lawyers.

So you can see them.

And we've got a couple of things that we've touched upon in previous lessons about mitigating and aggravating factors, so things that could increase the sentence and things that could reduce the sentence.

Now, what's really important to understand is from the age of 10 years old you are eligible to go to court.

So you are criminally responsible for any crime that you commit and you can go to court.

Now using the two-part test from the previous slides, is it in the public interest that Robert was brought to court? Well, yes, because it's been caught on CCTV and he's been threatening violence to a younger pupil.

Is there enough evidence to bring him? Well on the facts there, yes, it's been caught on CCTV and Robert himself pleaded guilty.

So that particular care satisfies the need for that two part test and for the CPS to bring this to court.

But why? So we've said there that from the age of 10 years old it's important that you understand that you are able to be arrested and taken to court if you commit a crime.

And the reason for that is if you look at the statistics there you can see that there is an abundance of crime being committed.

So in the years, 2017 to 2018 there are over 70,300 offences that were committed by people of the age between 10 and 17.

And you can see on the breakdown with our map there you can see per 10,000 people how many people are actually in custody.

You can see that in some areas it's higher and in some areas it's lower, but across the entirety of the country you can see that there are offences taking place.

Now what's really important down here is that's 40.

9 so nearly 41% of people who were convicted and punished in a youth court reoffended within 12 months of their sentence or their punishment.

They have gone on to commit an average of a further 3.

92 offence to another four offences.

So you might start considering here does it work if we send a youth to court 41% of them have already reoffended within 12 months.

So you might think either A, it's too harsh that we should be focused on rehabilitating these young offenders without sending them to court.

Or B, you might think it's not harsh enough that clearly wherever the courts are doing isn't having the intended effect.

So my question here at this point and you can make a few notes and jot a few ideas down here, should the children ever be required to attend court? And we'll look at that now and should children ever attend in person, if we are now using technology should we be able to use technology in the courtroom? Should they have to appear live in court or should they be able to do it on the video link? Also the effects on the victim.

So as a child witness you can give evidence from a different location so you can do it over video link, and that's to help the victim give the evidence and bringing about justice in the court.

But should the defendant be also, be able to do that? To save court time, to save money, but then how safe and easy is it to use technology and perhaps to misuse technology.

And also here, if we look at the previous slide, 41% of people, re-offended we've got look at the purpose of punishment.

So why are we punishing these individuals? Yes, because as a public interest but is prison is youth offending institutes always the right option? Should we use alternative dispute resolution? By that I mean, should we get the victim and the defendant together so that the defendant can truly see the impact of their crimes? So that's called a Restorative Justice Campaign.

Should that be always be the option? And also the age of criminal responsibility, is it right that 10 year old should go to court? And there's been numerous cases in and out of the news where people who are as young as 10 years old have been taken to court because it's in the public interest to do so.

Some people argue differently that they're just children but on the other scale if they've committed such a serious crime then surely they deserve to be punished in the same way as an adult would be.

You got to think of at 10 years old do you know the basis of right and wrong? Do you know that walking into a shop and stealing is wrong? Do you know that committing an assault on somebody offences against people, do you know that that's wrong? So if you know it's wrong then surely you leave yourself open to punishment.

Now what I want to do is review our previous learning that we've done over the last couple of weeks.

So I've given you a question from each of the lessons that I've done for you.

So it should parliamentary ping-pong be scrapped.

So that was the process of looking at how long it took for law to go backwards and forwards between both houses of parliament.

Is there a need to have that anymore? We also looked at people involved in the court system, so we learn that magistrates do not have any sort of legal qualification.

So you might think, well, if they're dealing with criminals if they're dealing with young people now should they have legal qualification? And if not, why not? Does it work how it works at the moment? Or do we look at giving them an extra qualification to help them? Also is there a need to have separate cohorts anymore? Should we have adult and a youth court? Should we have different criminal and civil courts? Or should we just hear it all in one place? This is looking at saving time and money, but then on the other side people are experts in certain fields.

So you might think that there is a need to keep them separate or you might think that no actually we can save some time and some money and put them all in one place.

Should prison be the only option when sentencing defender? So it should we look at getting rid of things like rehabilitation? Should we look at getting rid of things like community service? And should prison always be the option? You might think that yes, that would definitely work but at the same time you might think, well if it's such a low level crime does prison really warrant the crime? Something that we've looked at today is should children ever be required to attend the court? Should we be moving into the 21st century by using technology, looking at the effects of technology the ease of use? But also does that mean that the defendant gets away with it slightly cause they haven't actually been taken to court.

And then finally should the age of criminal responsibility be raised or lowered? So currently it's 10 years old.

Do you think that it's too low? Do you think that it should be changed? So maybe to 12, or to 14, or to 15, or 20, or an adult.

You might have some really strong views and there's some really interesting cases.

What I'd like you to do is choose one of the following questions or a combination of the following questions and then complete the following task.

So, first of all I want you to find out who your local MP is and you can do this by researching online.

Once you find out who your local MP is use the information from today's lesson or any previous learning, I want you to contact your local MP so you can write them a letter, you can send them a tweet, you can send them an email.

And I want you to put together a response to the following question.

Does law in the UK need updating? So looking at any of those previous questions we looked at does any of it need to change? Do we need to update any laws? And why do we need to update any laws? On the flip side, why does it need to stay the same? So either way you can say that yes it does need updating or no it works exactly as it is now.

So this is something that's called active citizenship and if you are in this active citizenship is something that you have to look at.

So by contacting your local MP you can start to enforce a change and you might want to do some extra research by looking at all the people that are campaigning for similar issues.

So you can look at some pressure groups online or you can look at all the pilot schemes that look to campaigning.

Either way, you should have a response and either way you should have a viewpoint on this.

So what I'd like to do is pause the video complete the task by contacting your MP, so take your time with this so you can treat, you can email, you can write a letter on any of the chores and issues so you can focus on one or you can look at a couple.

Make sure you back up your opinions and reasons why you think a change is necessary or why you think it needs to stay at the same? So pause the video here, complete your letter, your email or your tweet, and then click restart once you're done.

Okay, so what have we looked at this lesson? Well, we've looked at case scenario, we've taken Robert to a youth court, and then we've looked at the difference between the youth courts and the adult courts, and looked at why they are so different.

We've looked at key questions from previous lessons and we've started to understand or we've started to formulate, does the change need to happen? Hopefully you have now written your active citizenship campaign letter or your email or your tweet.

Now with that sent off to your local MP and hopefully you should be able to get a response back, if you do, I'd absolutely love to see some of your work.

So if you use the hashtag LearnwithOak and tag @OakNational on Twitter, I'd love to see some responses that either you've sent to your MP or any responses you get back.

It's a really good time to enforce change with citizenship education.

And I know that your MPs has got a lot of other things on their hands at the moment but your views certainly will matter to them.

So hopefully you have found today's lesson insightful and I look forward to seeing some of your responses online.

That's all for today's lesson, so now that you've done your letter make sure you send that off and then after this lesson make sure you complete the exit quiz based on the information from today's lesson.

I will see you again next time.

Thank you for watching, have a great day.