Ten interesting facts about criminal justice
Criminal laws can get pretty confusing when you do not know anything about it. There are separate laws for adults and children, and they are tried differently as well. But if you are an aspiring lawyer or someone who likes to know about the inner workings of justice, here are ten facts about criminal justice.
- In a criminal justice system, the interests of the victim as well as the public are taken into consideration. This is why many systems have conflicting objectives.
- Prosecution, police, prisons, probation, parole and judiciary are the critical components of criminal justice.
- It’s as essential to prevent a crime from happening as punishing offenders. That is why it is crucial for law enforcers to be on the lookout for breadcrumbs that are left by crimes that might occur in the future.
- It’s been estimated that almost 2.5%-5% of all convicts serving their sentence in a US prison are wrongly convicted. The rate is more or less accurate when it comes to murders.
- Eyewitnesses cannot be wholly relied on since their testimonies can be error-ridden. This leads to wrongful accusations and convictions. This is why the New Jersey Supreme Court has acknowledged the lack of reliable eyewitness recognition and hence has decided to take steps for defendants to challenge eyewitness accounts.
- When a person is wrongfully accused, they often face verbal threats and torture from the officials which lead to them confessing to something that they haven’t done.
- After a criminal has finished his sentence, they often find it hard to get employment since the criminal record stays with them for the entirety of their life. This is why in countries like England, criminals are sent to prison only if it is necessary since it costs 38,000 pounds per year to house a single prisoner.
- The only forensic tool that matters in the investigation of a crime is DNA. The use of DNA in an investigation had to go through many experiments to validate its need. After DNA collection became the norm, the reliability of other forensic tools have come under question.
- Unlike what television dramas and Hollywood movies like to show us, insanity as a defence is only used in 1% of all cases. Even in those cases, the success as little as 26%. There is no question that you need to be insane in order to plea for insanity, but 10% of these cases had defendants who weren’t diagnosed with any form of mental illness.
- Only 10% of all crimes that are committed are reported to the police.