The courts
Crown Courts are the ones with judges and juries. About one in eight of all criminal offences are serious enough to be dealt with in the Crown Court. 72% of Crown Court cases are resolved by the defendant choosing to plead Guilty.
Magistrates' courts are presided over by a magistrate rather than a judge. Magistrates are members of the public who have had relatively brief and un-rigorous training; the main qualification for being a magistrate is being able to give up 26 days a year to the role. 82% of magistrates' court cases are resolved with a Guilty plea.
Why so many Guilty pleas?
We don't know what proportion of the people charged by the police are in fact guilty, but presumably it's a fairly high proportion. All the same, you would think that quite a lot of the people who are guilty (and everyone who isn't) would want to take their chances in court. In practice, only about one in five suspects do. The truth is, if you're guilty and the evidence is against you, it makes sense to plead Guilty: you'll get off much lighter that way. And if you're not guilty, but the evidence is or appears to be against you - or you think the court is likely to be against you - it may make sense to plead Guilty for the same reason. The police, the judge and your own defence lawyer will all make sure you're aware of the advantages of pleading Guilty, and may positively encourage you to do so.
What's the purpose of sentencing?
Sentencing has two sets of purposes, which in practice judges and magistrates can pick and choose from:
Retributive purposes, which focus on the crime and use punishment as an end in itself:
Retribution: making the punishment fit the crime
Denunciation: making sure the offender knows he/she is being punished
Utilitarian purposes, which focus on the end result and use punishment as a means to an end:
Deterrence: using punishment to scare potential offenders
Incapacitation: using punishment to make society safer, e.g. through imprisonment
Rehabilitation: using punishment to reduce the number of offenders by reforming them
Reparation: using punishment to help victims of crime
The retributive purposes seems harsher - more vindictive - than the utilitarian ones, but in practice the reverse may be true. It may be easier to justify harsh sentences on deterrent grounds - 'making an example' of one offender as a lesson to the others - than as retribution.
Essay guidance
Firstly, in the immortal words of Douglas Adams, Don't Panic!. All you need to worry about at this stage of your studies is staying on the course, and all you need to do in order to do that is write an essay that's good enough to get a Pass mark. (I hope and trust that your essays will be a lot better than that, but that's the only target you absolutely have to beat.)
Secondly, some guidance on quoting. You should be quoting published sources to support your argument. Do use quotes from books, academic journal articles etc. Don't quote me (lectures or this blog). Don't quote Wikipedia. I believe there are disreputable Web sites out there which provide pre-written essays; it would be a very, very bad idea to use them. (If you do, I guarantee that it will be spotted; at best, the parts of the essay which you have borrowed will be ignored when it comes to marking. Don't risk it.)
Thirdly, some positive recommendations. A good essay will have:
an introduction and a conclusion (but do keep them short)
a
definite point of view (but don't say “I think”/"it seems to me" etc; the
entire essay is what you think, so it’s a waste of words)
an argument: you should be able to explain the essay to somebody else in a couple of sentences, without using the phrase “and then there’s a bit about...”
Fourthly, how to get started. Here's what I'd suggest. Study the question, do some reading to make sure you understand what it's asking, then (very important) work out what you think about it. Once you've started to plan out an answer, see if there are any gaps in the reading you've done. When you know your argument, you've got a plan and you're confident you can back it up with quotes, put all your notes on one side, open a new document (or take a blank sheet of paper if you want to be old skool) and just write. That blank-sheet moment is the hardest part of the whole process; once you're through that it should be easier, particularly if you're well prepared. Good luck!
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