Errors of Justice: Nature, Sources and Remedies

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Cambridge University Press, 2004 - 254 páginas
In this book, Brian Forst takes a fresh new perspective on the assessment of criminal justice policy, examining the prospect of assessing policies based on their impact on errors of justice: the error of failing to bring offenders to justice, on the one hand, and the error of imposing costs on innocent people and excessive costs on offenders, on the other. Noting that we have sophisticated systems for managing errors in statistical inference and quality control processes and no parallel system for managing errors of a more socially costly variety - on matters of guilt and innocence - the author lays the foundation for a common sense approach to the management of errors in the criminal justice system, from policing and prosecution to sentencing and corrections. He examines the sources of error in each sector, the harms they impose on society, and frameworks for analyzing and reducing them.

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Contenido

The Problem
1
What Is an Error of Justice?
3
Aim and Overview of the Book
7
Errors of Due Process
10
What Is Due Process?
11
Landmark Due Process Cases
13
The Sources of Due Process Errors and Their Social Significance
16
Managing Due Process Errors
19
Prosecutorial Discretion and Errors of Justice
114
Improved Coordination with Police
116
Errors of Fact Questions of Culpability and Tactical Errors
118
Should the Prosecutor Emphasize Conviction Quality or Quantity?
120
Analyzing Data on Prosecution under a Range of Assumptions about Factual Guilt
122
Analysis by Crime Category
127
Conclusion
131
The Jury
134

Conclusion
21
Errors of Impunity
22
What Is an Error of Impunity?
23
Managing Errors of Impunity
27
Conclusion
30
Frameworks for Analyzing the Incidence of Justice Errors
31
The Problem of Reliability
32
The Problem of Validity
36
Parallels between Errors of Statistical Inference and Errors of Justice
40
Managing Errors in Production and Service Delivery Processes
41
Conclusion
43
Assessing the Cost of Justice Errors
45
What Are the Social Costs of Crime and Justice?
46
Difficulties in Assessing the Social Costs of Crime and Justice
48
Optimal Levels of Interventions Against Crime
52
Initial Estimates
54
Conclusion
55
Standards of Evidence
57
Varying the Parameters
58
Conclusion
64
PoliceInduced Errors
66
Making Sense of Policing Errors
67
Nature and Sources of Justice Errors Associated with the Police
69
Managing Justice Errors Attributable to the Police
92
Balancing Error Management with Other Policing Goals
106
Conclusion
109
Prosecution Policy and Justice Errors
112
Jury Policy Representativeness and Justice Errors
136
How Many Jurors? Must Their Decision be Unanimous?
140
Jury Dynamics
145
Conclusion
149
Sentencing and Corrections
150
Optimum Sanctions under Alternative Frameworks
152
Sources of Excessive Social Costs in Sentencing
172
Who Might Cause Sentences to be Outside the Norm?
173
Should Sanctions be Based on Predictions?
176
Errors in Corrections
178
The Critical Role of Incentives and Systems of Accountability
180
Conclusion
182
Homicide
184
Opportunities for Error in Classification
185
Failures to Bring Homicide Offenders to Justice
190
Excessive Intrusions in Homicide Cases
197
The Death Penalty
199
Remedies and Impediments to the Management of Errors in Homicide Cases
203
Conclusion
210
A Matter of Legitimacy
212
What is Legitimacy?
213
Operationalizing the Notion of Legitimacy
215
Conclusion
217
Bibliography
221
Index
243
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