| Indictable and Summary Offences Indictable offences were offences for which an offender had to be tried on a bill of indictment before a judge or Bench of magistrates, sitting with a petty jury; the jury decided on the verdict, and the judge or magistrates formulated and pronounced the sentence. Summary offences were tried summarily by two or three magistrates, sitting without a jury at Petty Sessions; both verdict and sentence were pronounced by the magistrates. Trials on indictment were heard either at Quarter Sessions (before magistrates) or at Assizes (before a judge). An Act of 1842 (5 and 6 Vict. c. 38) laid down the limits of their respective jurisdictions: Assizes could try any indictable offence; Quarter Sessions could try any indictable offence except (1) those for which the death penalty could be imposed (including treason and murder), (2) those for which a first offender could be sentenced to transportation for life, (3) certain specified offences, including blasphemy, perjury, forgery, bigamy, libel and bribery. This Act merely made explicit what had been the practice for two centuries - that Quarter Sessions did not try capital cases or their equivalent in degree of seriousness. Quarter Sessions tried far more of the indictable offences than Assizes did. Assizes tended to try only the more serious of the indictable offences - murder, homicides, burglary, rape, robberies with violence, assault accompanied by wounding; Quarter Sessions tried the less serious and more common of the indictable offences - larcenies, housebreaking, assaults, robberies not accompanied with serious violence, frauds. Indictable offences generally tended to be the more serious offences, summary offences to be the less serious offences. There was a great extension of the magistrates' powers of summary juri5diction in the early nineteenth century, especially in the 1 820's. The Summary Jurisdiction Act of 1848 (11 and 12 Vict. c. 43) consolidated and improved the holding of Petty Sessions, which had been held to try cases summarily for a considerable time before that. On the whole, those offences which were tried summarily were the less serious ones - common assaults, breaches of the peace, minor riots and affrays, drunk and disorderly conduct, Vagrancy, breaches of licensing laws or of local bylaws, etc. But this distinction was not absolutely observed - poaching, for instance, was tried summarily, but the theft of an article of the tiniest value continued to be an indictable offence. Some offences could be tried either summarily or on indictment, depending on the seriousness of the particular act in question. Thus, for assaults or riot offences, the magistrate at the preliminary examination could choose either to try the accused summarily directly, or commit him for trial at Quarter Sessions or Assizes; if the latter was chosen, then the accused, if found guilty, was likely to receive a heavier sentence than from a summary trial. In examining men for participation in the same fight or riot, the magistrate could choose to commit some of them for trial on indictment (because he felt their conduct constituted a more serious offence) and try the others summarily. Basically, all serious offences were indictable offences, though not all indictable offences were necessarily serious offences. So Quarter Sessions and Assizes handled all serious offences plus a large number which were not so serious. As the century progressed, and the need to deal with the mounting number of prosecutions grew, summary jurisdiction was further increased. The instances which concern this study are the Juvenile Offenders Acts of 1847 and 1850, and the Criminal Justice Act of 1855, which allowed minor larcenies, under certain conditions, to be tried summarily; but the offences themselves remained indictable offences; it is simply that there was now the option of having them summarily tried. Felonies and Misdemeanours The distinction between felonies and misdemeanours dates back to the Middle Ages, when felonies were the crimes for which men could forfeit their lives and goods, while misdemeanours were minor offences. By the 1 830s, the legal distinction still existed, and technically, a felony was a more serious offence, though this distinction had been eroded in fact. It is true that any capital offence such as murder, was a felony; but so too was theft of 6d worth of goods; while a serious assault, obtaining goods by false pretences, and perjury, were all misdemeanors. So, by the period covered by this study, the distinction of felony and misdemeanor had no longer any clear-cut validity as regards the seriousness of an offence - most serious offences were felonies, but some were misdemeanors. The distinction could still affect the question of punishment (only felonies could be capital), legal procedure (different provisions for felonies and misdemeanors as regards the payment of the expenses of prosecution, and the right of an accuser's counsel to address the jury), and the means employed to arrest a suspect (to arrest a suspected felon, force could be used; to apprehend a suspected misdemeanour, 'reasonable means' only could be employed; this had relevance particularly in the handling of riots which could be felonies or misdemeanours, depending on the opinion of the authorities). It is important to note that these two distinctions of indictable and summary offences, and felony and misdemeanour, do not coincide. All felonies were indictable offences and could only be tried on indictment, except where statute expressly permitted their summary trial; but a number of misdemeanours were also indictable offences, and many assaults, riots, cases of obtaining by false pretences, perjury, etc. were tried on indictment. References E. Melling (ed.), Introduction to Kentish Sources, vol. VI, Crime and Punishment; Maitland, Justice and Police, p. 16; Abel-Smith and Stevens, Lawyers and the Courts, p. 31; Radzinowicz, History, vols. 1, 2 and 4. This extract from 'Crime and Authority in Victorian England-Black Country 1835-1860 by David Philips is reproduced by permission of the publishers Croom Helm Ltd. |
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