Causes of Wrongful Conviction: Looking at Student Knowledge (original) (raw)
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Student Attitudes toward Wrongful Conviction
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2009
Although there is considerable research addressing the factors that underlie wrongful conviction, relatively little research investigates attitudes toward wrongful conviction. To contribute to this understudied area, we surveyed first- and third-year Canadian undergraduates in criminal justice and non-criminal-justice majors to determine their attitudes toward differing facets of wrongful conviction. In particular, attitudes toward the frequency of wrongful conviction, the Blackstone ratio, the need to educate criminal justice personnel about factors that contribute to wrongful conviction, and the question of whether wrongful conviction causes individuals to lose faith in the criminal justice system were assessed. In general, participants – especially senior criminal justice students – reported attitudes that were sensitive to issues related to wrongful conviction. The implications of these findings for criminal justice personnel and the literature on wrongful conviction are discussed.
Analyzing Wrongful Convictions beyond the traditional canonical list of errors
Touro Law Review, Vol. 37, 2021
Researchers identify possible structural causes for wrongful convictions: racism, justice system culture, adversary system, plea bargaining, media, juvenile and mentally impaired accused, and wars on drugs and crime. They indicate that unless the root causes of convic-tion error are identified, the routine explanations of error (e.g., eye-witness identifications; false confessions) will continue to re-occur. Identifying structural problems may help to prevent future wrongful convictions. The research involves the coding of archival data from the Innocence Project for seventeen cases, including the one for the Central Park Five exonerees. The data were coded by Hartwick Col-lege and Northern Vermont University students in their respective wrongful convictions courses. Students also designed a vignette of their case and conducted structured interviews with public officers, judges, lawyers, and investigators which inquired into the subjects’ awareness of exonerations. A follow-up study, which is the subject of a future publication, was conducted with students at Curry Col-lege in Boston in 2019, many of whom worked as Boston City Police Officers and in other law enforcement occupations. The officers added their expertise and their appreciation of structural problems like justice system culture. This study emphasizes that the errors we see within the criminal justice system mirror and amplify the prob-lems we see outside of that system. The findings here show that ca-nonical list of errors in these cases may be just a veneer for deeper structural problems.
What do students really know about criminal justice?
International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice, 2013
This survey of three hundred and twenty undergraduate students attempted to determine their knowledge of crime and punishment in North Carolina. Respondents answered a series of open-and closed-ended questions regarding various legal topics, such as statutory rape and the legal ages for tobacco and alcohol use. The participants were also asked to list punishments for various offenses, such as possession of marijuana, driving while intoxicated, and rape. They were then asked to define certain legal terms such as larceny. The results indicated that most students were unable to provide correct corresponding punishments for many offenses. They were also unable to accurately define various legal terms, such as robbery or rape. The implications for stronger education in the area of criminal justice are discussed.
Despite the growing number of university and law school-based innocence projects in North America, the impact of participation in the case review process on students has been underexplored. The current study investigated the experiences of criminology students who participated in an innocence project practicum at a Canadian university. Overall, participants found the practicum to be a positive experience that led to greater empowerment and increased feelings of competence and self-worth. Additionally, the innocence practicum impacted students' views of wrongful conviction and their beliefs about the criminal justice system. In particular, students left the practicum with a better appreciation of the factors that contribute to wrongful conviction, knowledge that wrongful convictions occur more frequently than they previously thought, feelings of empathy about the post-release challenges faced by exonerees, and the sense that they could make a difference in the lives of others. Moreover, students developed more negative views of, and lost faith in, the criminal justice system as a result of their involvement in the practicum. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Identifying Patterns Across the Six Canonical Factors Underlying Wrongful Convictions
Wrongful Conviction Law Review, 2022
Research has established six "canonical" factors underlying wrongful convictions including: mistaken witness identification (MWID), false confession (FC), perjury or false accusation (P/FA), false or misleading forensic evidence (F/MFE), official misconduct (OM), and inadequate legal defense (ILD). While we know these factors do not occur in isolation, researchers have yet to examine the patterns across these six factors. In the present article, we apply latent class analysis to explore how these six factors might co-occur across known exonerations. Using data from the National Registry of Exonerations, we identify four latent classes by which the incidence rates across these six factors can be categorized. Among our noteworthy findings: 1) P/FA and OM often co-occur, 2) when MWIDs are high, the incidence of other factors is relatively low, and 3) false guilty pleas had the highest prevalence in a class that was generally associated with Failures to Investigate. Further implications are discussed. I.
Illinois Law Enforcement Executive Training and Standards Board Executive Institute, 2015
This article explores the causal factors amalgamating adjudicative and investigative factors of wrongful conviction. It chronicles the interaction between the causal factors of confirmation bias, misleading specialized knowledge, and tunnel vision that are pathways to perfidy in the criminal justice system and are present in all wrongful convictions. This article considers social science frameworks on a broader scale for understanding wrongful convictions and also for understanding what the root causes are and the interactions between the causal factors that cause wrongful convictions. The article concludes with a discussion to stimulate progress on constitutional reform that advances policy on wrongful convictions.
One Hundred Years Later: Wrongful Convictions after a Century of Research, 100
In this Article, the authors analyze a century of research on the causes and consequences of wrongful convictions in the American criminal justice system while explaining the many lessons of this body of work. This Article chronicles the range of research that has been conducted on wrongful convictions; examines the common sources of error in the criminal justice system and their effects; suggests where additional research and attention are needed; and discusses methodological strategies for improving the quality of research on wrongful convictions. The authors argue that traditional sources of error (eyewitness misidentification, false confessions, perjured testimony, forensic error, tunnel vision, prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective assistance of counsel, etc.) are contributing sources, not exclusive causes, of wrongful convictions. They also argue that the research on wrongful convictions has uncovered a great deal about how these sources operate and what might prevent their effects. Finally, the authors urge criminal justice professionals and policymakers to take this research more seriously and apply the lessons learned from a century of research into wrongful convictions.
Perceptions of Campus Community Members Regarding Wrongful Convictions in Mississippi
2016
The American criminal justice system is a series of checks and balances meant to protect the American people. However, on occasion, the system fails, and innocent people are convicted of crimes, leaving the truly guilty perpetrator free to potentially commit other crimes. This study aimed to determine the beliefs, perceptions, and attitudes of university community members regarding the issue of wrongful conviction in Mississippi. This was executed by hosting a public forum including the Director of the Mississippi Innocence Project on the campus of Southern Mississippi. During this forum, participants were provided with the opportunity to complete two surveys in the form of a quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test design. Once Survey #1 was completed, the participants viewed a documentary entitled "Mississippi Innocence." Following the screening of the documentary, participants were then asked to complete Survey #2. Results of the analysis indicated that the more information that is made available to the public about the issue of wrongful conviction, the more the public agrees that exonorees are unfairly compensated. The ultimate goal of this project is to raise awareness of unfair compensation statutes in place throughout the United States. v Table of Contents List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………..vi Chapter 1: Introduction……………………………………………………………………1 Chapter 2: Review of the Literature……………………………………………………….1