Applied Law - QCF (Edexcel)

Pressure Groups

Law Commission

The Law Commission reviews laws and adds recommendations to influence the Government to make, but the Government is not obliged to follow these. An area of law that has been changed due to this legal team is the Liability for Psychiatric Illness, this was not approved but it would've made it so people who had a mental illness are not negligent for certain crimes they commit. The good aspects of the Law Commision is that it is professional and legal but the group don't have much power so can be overlooked in the parliamentary process.

Royal Commissions

Unlike the Law Commision, Royal Commissions work part time and independently from one another an example of Royal Commissions at work would be the Runciman Commission (1991), this commission was established by the home secretary at the time to ensure that the Criminal Justice system is being constantly examined to increase efficiency this includes police behavior, forensic science, the role of a professional witness, the rights of the accused to a proper defence and the right to appeal.

Political Powers

Often political powers can have influence over laws and policies changing, some parties may use a manifesto to influence others to vote for them and this manifesto may include a law change, this is good as the government will be reflecting the wishes of an electorate but they also may have opposing opinions on the law change which could affect the validity of the party. Brexit by the Tories is a good example of a law influenced by a political power.

Media Influence

The media can have a large influence on the Government as it can control people's behaviours, the Government may bow down to this especially as the media can now influence others through many sources such as TV, newspapers, magazine and the internet. An example of a law change that was based on media influence is the campaign Sarah's Law, this campaign to allow parents to know of the local paedophiles joined up with News Of The World - making a petition that got 1 million signatures, after lots of convincing the law finally passed through. The media is good as it allows the public to voice their opinions and raises awareness but the public can react in the wrong way and media can sometimes be biased.

Pressure Groups

A pressure group is a certain group of individuals or in the community that try to influence a public policy or a law from the outside. The two types are sectional and cause, sectional represents the interest of a particular group and a cause is a group for example environmental groups. In 2000 because of a pressure group the Government reduced the age of consent for homosexuals to 16. Pressure groups are good as they have sensible tactics to raise public awareness unlike the media but they can be biased and even cause criminal behaviour because of their cause. There are six types of pressure groups I am going to discuss, these are police, CPS, judges, prisons, probation and charities. Police withhold the law and protect society, CPS are in charge of court cases and helping the police charge criminals, judges ensure justice is served in a court of law, prisons ensure all convicts that could be a danger to society are incarcerated, probation aims to change the behaviours of prisoners to prevent reoffending and the charity NARCO (National Association For the Care and Resettlement of Offenders) aims to help offenders fit back into society. NARCO has a pressure group and this group tries to maintain this charity.