The criminal costs of wrongful convictions

Abstract

Research Summary:In this article, we examine criminal offending by true perpetrators after innocent people are arrested and convicted for their crimes. After investigating a set of cases in which DNA was used to exonerate the innocent and to identify the guilty party, we identified 109 true perpetrators, 102 of whom committed additional crimes. We found a total of 337 additional offenses committed by the true perpetrators, including 43 homicide-related and 94 sex offenses. By extrapolating from our findings, we estimate that the wrong-person wrongful convictions that occur annually may lead to more than 41,000 additional crimes. Policy Implications:Our findings indicate that one consequence of wrongful convictions, allowing the true perpetrators of crimes to remain at liberty and commit new crimes that imperil prospective victims, represents an important threat to public safety and thereby dramatically compounds the harms caused to innocents. We stress the importance of framing wrongful conviction issues to capture these important crime control concerns and, thus, to help galvanize public opinion and promote policy reforms that will mutually benefit adherents of both crime control and due process perspectives. K E Y W O R D Scrime control, due process, exoneration, framing, innocence, miscarriage of justice, true perpetrator, wrongful conviction, wrongful liberty

Identifying and Charging True Perpetrators in Cases of Wrongful Convictions

“…Although the literature regarding wrongful convictions broadly is extensive-covering a variety of factors including mistaken witness identification (e.g., Clark, 2012;Garrett, 2011), false or misleading forensic evidence (e.g., Cooper & Meterko, 2019;Garrett & Neufeld, 2009;Kassin, Dror, & Kukucka, 2013), and the aftermath of wrongful convictions (e.g., Norris, 2014;Thompson, Molina, & Levett, 2012;Westervelt & Cook, 2012)-research about true perpetrators specifically is just beginning to develop. Most research on the topic aims to estimate the number of additional crimes true perpetrators commit due to instances of wrongful conviction (Baumgartner et al, 2018;Conroy & Warden, 2011;Norris, Weintraub, et al, 2019;West & Meterko, 2016). The consensus across this line of work is that when true perpetrators escape justice, they continue to pose a significant public safety risk by committing additional serious crimes.…”

“…The consensus across this line of work is that when true perpetrators escape justice, they continue to pose a significant public safety risk by committing additional serious crimes. Only recently has research started to examine factors that influence whether or not true perpetrators are identified (Weintraub, 2020), but scholars have speculated that contributors to wrongful convictions, such as false confessions, may affect the likelihood of true perpetrator identification (Norris, Weintraub, et al, 2019). Additional work is needed to understand the factors underlying the identification of true perpetrators so that more of these individuals can be identified and a more accurate estimate of the harm they cause produced.…”

“…The concerns held by the public about the dangers of wrongful convictions are warranted, as the vast majority of true perpetrators commit at least one crime after someone else has been wrongfully convicted for their own criminal actions (Norris, Weintraub, et al, 2019). The identification of true perpetrators is necessary to know the full negative impact of their wrongful liberty on public safety.…”

“…The identification of true perpetrators is necessary to know the full negative impact of their wrongful liberty on public safety. Studies quantifying true perpetrators' crimes have been done with samples ranging from state-wide wrongful convictions (Baumgartner et al, 2018;Conroy & Warden, 2011), to national samples (Norris, Weintraub, et al, 2019;West & Meterko, 2016). Extrapolated information about the criminal impact of true perpetrators in DNA exoneration cases to federal data on annual convictions has found that incarcerating the wrong individuals may lead to more than 41,000 additional crimes being committed each year (Norris, Weintraub, et al, 2019).…”

“…Furthermore, the types of crimes that true perpetrators commit are not inconsequential. They are often serious crimes, categorized as violent or felony-level offenses (Baumgartner et al, 2018;Conroy & Warden, 2011;West & Meterko, 2016), and primarily consist of sexual assault as well as other violent crimes including armed robbery, aggravated assault, and homicide (Norris, Weintraub, et al, 2019;West & Meterko, 2016). In these cases, identifying a true perpetrator can quite literally mean the difference between life and death.…”