ABSTRACT
This chapter will pay particular attention to the nature of the criminal justice system in England and Wales. In Chapter One it was made clear that criminologists not only concern themselves with the problems of defining, measuring and explaining crime, they are also concerned with how the criminal justice system works, or fails to work, for the criminals, victims and the professionals who are involved with it. For many criminologists their concern with the criminal justice system is around the question of whether or not it works in a fair and equal way for the people who come into contact with it. In order to do that, of course, it is necessary for a criminologist to have some kind of understanding of how the criminal justice system works before they can offer an understanding of what its strengths and weaknesses are. So this chapter will introduce the reader to some understanding of the nature of the criminal justice system as well as highlighting the kinds of questions that criminologists might ask about it.
