How would one go about answering this question? What criteria would you base it on? What arguments would you make?
Assess the use of defences to criminal charges in achieving justice topics: (complete defences to criminal charges), and (partial defences to murder).
Thanks guys.
Hey,
I think provocation as a partial defence would be a good piece to talk about in one of your paragraphs
You can say how the use of a complete/partial defence allows for justice to be served for the offender, but at the expense of the victim/society. You can see this in the case of R v Singh and R v Loveridge where the provocation defence was used and resulted in a lesser sentence and caused much outrage within society.
Some extra pieces of evidence for the above cases:
Loveridge: The DPP stated that the sentence was 'manifestly inadequete'
Singh: Insights provocation episode Phil Cleary states 'If provocation allows for the killing of a woman for an alleged affair, then women are dead women walking'. (Singh murdered his wife after a heated argument with threats of deportation and claims of affairs).
Provocation has much more cases that you could use; You could look into the gay panic defence and the NSW Law Reform Commision's push to amend the defence to 'Gross Provocation'.
Off the top of my head, consent is a great one as it is something that is difficult to prove and therefore fails to uphold the rights of the victim. You could definitely link this with sexual assault cases; Unfortunately, I have none to offer
There's also the crossover between Mental Illness/Insanity with the partial defence of substantial impairment of responsibility by abnormality of mind. Offenders are usually persuaded to use the partial defence as it is seen as much easier to prove. However, this may leave offenders who are ACTUALLY mentally ill/insane to be tried for manslaughter... leading to injustice.
I kinda rambled on with this sorry
. This is just a result of me brainstorming a few ideas/concepts that I would personally use when attacking a question like that. I hope this can give you some inspiration as well as other people reading the thread!