ABSTRACT
The principal agencies of criminal justice in Scotland are the police, prosecution service and the courts. However, the system goes far wider than that. As is acknowledged elsewhere within the United Kingdom, it also covers the myriad of agencies that are responsible for offenders and victims, such as the Scottish Prison Service, local council social work
departments and voluntary organisations. The system in Scotland does not, strictly speaking, include the Children’s Hearings for dealing with juvenile offenders. This is a welfare-based system and is not a criminal court, although there has been a tendency in recent years to view it as a mechanism for juvenile justice and as part of the wider criminal justice process. The following overview looks at the principal agencies within the Scottish criminal justice system as well as those working in the wider context and seeks to relate these to the work of the Scottish police.
