Wrongful Convictions

Abstract

Wrongful conviction—the conviction of a factually innocent person—is becoming an important policy issue in criminal justice and criminology research. A wrongful conviction is deemed worse than a wrongful acquittal, also an error of justice, because it implicates the very governmental apparatus relied on to provide justice. They are very difficult to detect and no official records are kept. Estimates of wrongful felony convictions range from 0.005 to 0.03, or from about 5,000 to 30,000 (and 2,000 to 12,000 prison admissions) each year. Many factors, including eyewitness identification errors, false confessions, forensic error, perjury, ineffective defense lawyers, and prosecutorial misconduct regularly appear in false conviction cases, suggesting a causal influence, although scientific evidence of cause and effect is limited. Impediments to reform include inherent problems like cognitive bias and policy impediments like not videotaping confessions, conducting suggestive lineups, and underfunding indigent defense. Half the states provide compensation for wrongful convictions.

The Relationism Theory of Criminal Justice—A Paradigm Shift

“…Research traditions based on Western data have produced many specific explanations for specific aspects or outcomes with a particular justice agency such as the police, courts, and corrections. (see Clear, 2001;Crank, 2002;Cullen, 1995;Duffee, 1980;Hagan, 1989;;Kraska & Brent, 2004;Macdonald, 2008;Marenin & Worrall, 1998;Sullivan, 1994;Zalman, 1981). Some of them focus on patterns of daily operations; some focus on explaining special cases and emphasize "applied" sides of criminal justice research.…”

“…Originating in the 1950s, academic criminal justice has made great achievements and has developed into an independent discipline primarily in the United States and Europe. However, to date, a major deficiency of the discipline is the lack of a well-recognized general criminal justice theory, as concluded by some prominent criminal justice scholars (Bernard & Engel, 2001;Clear, 2001;Crank, 2002;Cullen, 1995;Duffee, 1980;Hagan, 1989;Kraska, 2006;Kraska & Brent, 2004;Macdonald, 2008;Marenin & Worrall, 1998;Sullivan, 1994;Zalman, 1981). Criminal justice teaching programs in Western countries by default assume that the content of "criminal justice theory" is about crime and crime rates, which essentially is the subject of criminology theory (Bernard & Engel, 2001;Cullen, 1995;Hagan, 1989;Henderson & Boostrom, 1989 ;Macdonald, 2008 ;.…”