Wrongful Convictions In The Criminal Justice System

The issues with wrongful convictions for the criminal justice system is that people in society look up to the criminal justice system because of its almighty power to protect the citizens from criminals. However, when such cases of wrongful conviction appear, people are frightened that an innocent person can be convicted for no reason and the same may happen to them.

The public is confident in the criminal justice system and how it would do its job in protecting and serving the society. People give up some power in order for the criminal justice system to protect and ensure people’s freedom and rights. If someone commits a crime on someone, the law makes the wrongdoer pay in some way. On the other side, if someone does not do anything wrong,

In both of these scenarios, justice was not done. The systems responsibility is to promote justice, equality, fairness, and protection. However, wrongful convictions have broken this trust and confidence between the system and the people. People look up to the criminal justice system but when that trust is broken; the system also crumbles. Wrongful convictions do not just harm the innocent alleged criminal. The harm is also brought upon the innocent individuals family, the guilty person was allowed to go free and, potentially, commit further crimes, the victim’s family, and the system itself.

This is in itself a controversial subject; many people would agree that the criminal justice system aids in keeping criminals off the streets, however, many other people would agree that the criminal justice system is not just in itself. The criminal justice system is seen as a discriminant, sexist, racist, biased, cruel and an unjust system. Let us first understand what justice truly means. Justice means that the criminal law should give the alleged criminal just the right amount of punishment proportionate to the crime while upholding peace for the public. Adam Benforado (2015) believes that police officers,

For instance, an alleged criminal suspected of a crime has been convicted and this reinforces the views that the system can protect and serve the community. Society admires the idea of convicting people rather than letting them into the society again and risking the danger that can happen. In many cases, officers and prosecutors will use their power to arrest and indict the person that best fits the description of the suspect of the crime. Therefore, the alleged criminal will most likely be convicted based on the description and circumstances of the individual. However, this plainly shows that the system fails to aid the innocent who were merely in the wrong place at the wrong