ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to provide a brief narrative introduction to the key characteristics and principles of Scottish criminal justice. Different criminal justice systems do exist in the UK (see Chapter 2), contrary to what many may think, and there are indeed English and Welsh, and Scottish criminal justice systems, each with their own history, their own laws, their own practices and their own policies for dealing with and addressing criminal behaviour. The practitioners within each system are accountable to different parliaments, but because the nature of criminal justice is ever-changing, the chapter will focus on those aspects of Scottish criminal justice that are unique to it and which give it a separate and distinct identity from other systems. The chapter will introduce three dimensions of Scottish criminal justice:
• a brief history of Scots criminal law; • the Scottish criminal courts and personnel; • the criminal justice process in Scotland.
