n the opening paragraph of Chapter 15 of the textbook, Daly and Sarre (2017, p.

n the opening paragraph of Chapter 15 of the textbook, Daly and Sarre (2017, p. 358) highlight the central role of discretion in criminal justice:
‘Central to the criminal process is the exercise of discretion by police officers, prosecutors, defence lawyers, judicial officers, probation officers, and community and institutional correctional staff.’
For this task you must write an essay that critically analyses the role of discretion in the Australian criminal justice system
Objectives
The following course objectives are being assessed:
CO2. Evaluate the role and effectiveness of the police and legal professions in dispensing criminal justice (including accessibility for victims).
CO3. Explain the issues and arguments around the role of the courts (especially with regards to sentencing).
Instructions
You are to write an essay that critically analyses the role of discretion in the criminal justice system by answering this question:
What role does discretion play in the operation of the criminal justice system?
In your essay you must examine how discretion functions in policing, prosecutions and sentencing. Note that the tasks asks you to critically analyse. This means you must comment on the uses and the potential abuses of discretion. You must examine the benefits and limitations of discretion in the operation of policing, prosecution and sentencing.
Before writing your essay. Please read through your feedback from your essay plan. Ensure that you have understood all of the feedback. If points of the feedback are unclear, please get in touch with the marker to ask for clarification. They will be happy to help and offer you more direction.
You should include at least 10 high-quality academic sources in your work.
Assessment Criteria and Marking rubric
A pdf of the marking rubric is available below. The assessment will be marked according to the following criteria:
Your work will be assessed on the following criteria:
Content and Argument (30%)
Critical Analysis (40%)
Language and Structure (20%)
Referencing (10%)