Research Paper on Criminal Justice

Close to 10 thousand people get wrongfully convicted a YEAR. It’s understandable that accidents happen, but people's lives are on the line. Plenty of people go to college to major in Forensics to prevent things like wrongful convictions, but much more is needed, like an organization. The Criminal Justice system is being looked down on because of its mistakes, so changes need to be made. Wrongful convictions ruin the life of those who don’t deserve it, so it’s time to put a stop to it by offering those Latinos who claim they are being wrongfully convicted help. These problems are in the hands of the criminal justice system, and I believe by offering a program that digs deep into specific cases could help those serving time for something they are innocent of. The criminal justice studies are building and becoming stronger, so let the movement begin.

The number of wrongful convictions has increased and many people believe the criminal justice system is broken. DNA exonerations are at fault for the misleading convictions and states are concerned. Resolving problems in the Criminal justice system is harder than everyone believes. Coming to conclusions can take forever depending on whom all’s input is needed. No forensics scientist knows how to do every type of investigation, so it requires different branches. For example, a bullet is found next to a shattered window at a crime scene the ballistics team will need to be involved to identify what type of bullet it shows far it came from, what side it entered when impacted, then the glass specialist will have to do their own studies to identify if it were even that bullet that broke the window and if there are cameras, then another team has to get involved and, so it requires lots of people there for lots of time. Due to there being so many people involved in the investigation, things can go left real quick. Having so many hands on can lead to accidents interrupting the investigation and that is when people get convicted for something they didn't do. Any slight mix up with evidence will take a huge toll on those they assume is at fault for the crime.

Statistics on contributing factors of the wrongful conviction show how distinct mistakes can be resolved and or found. ¨Only a fraction of criminal cases involves biological evidence that can be subjected to DNA testing,¨-Innocent project. Not all wrongful convictions are caused by DNA, so it’s quite difficult to detect where they come from and even harder to find solutions to all the variety of problems. The numbers of wrongful convictions are hard to lower because of how difficult and long it takes to even resolve one case, although there are so many people involved. The problem is not the criminal justice system but the new things they have to get familiar with and decide which routes to go since there are tons.

Thanks to studies from 1932 the forensics scientists have developed knowledge to have them where they are currently. Exoneration cases of wrongful convictions were extensively covered in national and local print media, but they were also regularly featured in documentaries, television programs, plays, movies, and popular true crime books so thanks to that the old cases have carried through years and are now being learned from. A few innocent defendants have won their freedom by presenting non-DNA scientific evidence or offering a witness’ recantation, among other bases. The Cyntoia Brown Story is one to learn from. Only a few out of hundred or thousand cases get solved, so that is why I'm here writing this. We must get the numbers of successfully solved cases to increase. Outsiders believe DNA is the only manner to testify to someone, but that is definitely wrong. Way back they have proved otherwise. If anything, DNA is one of the easiest and quickest cases to solve since its individual class. If it weren't for past studies in forensics, it would be so much more difficult to discover them now because although there is more technology now back then it was all transferred through the paper so it's more factual. 

The solution I have in mind is an organization for my Latino community that takes over the case and does their own investigation in order to help the criminal justice system go quicker. 

The same way an attorney is offered to all convicted criminals, this organization will be offered to all the Latino community if their conviction is questionable in our opinion. This organization will go through the evidence and handle it themselves instead of getting each branch involved and having them open the case again. This will make the process quicker and determine if the person deserves justice for their innocence. Some people serve decades before they get any help and in some cases, it's only because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time, so does that sound fair? These wrongful convictions ruin people's lives by wasting their time and time is never returned. Thanks to Christopher Scott from “True convictions” I have learned it is possible to build a foundation for prisoners and be hands-on with their cases. Mr. Scott was one who was wrongfully convicted and was given a chance by an organization who then helped, ever since then the foundation has grown with him being the leader. The organization changed his life and he chose to give back by helping others and it's such a beautiful thing.  

There are records deeply describing the professional responsibility, taxonomy, of potential evidence tamers, laws concerning wrongful convictions, and more. The information I’ve gathered breaks down how there are limits to what can be charged as a crime since accidents do happen and cover-ups are a thing. Evidence is at times fumbled but that doesn't always fall under  ̈tampering ̈ or necessarily destroying the evidence. The lawful punishment against a person depends on the state you live in and the laws they have. Not everything that is illegal in your state is illegal everywhere else, so tampered evidence can be seen differently on the level of crime. Illinois had the highest number of exonerations in the country by far. Not all states handle crimes the same, so some have tougher punishments and others don’t. Punishments are determined by what the specific state wants them to be, so whether it is fair or not, that's just how it works. There have been times where wrongful convictions start off as a small crime and from their branch off onto other things because of how states deal with punishing people, but the attention grabs more investigators is the person in constantly pleading innocent. Behind wrongful convictions are several crimes or accidents. Depending on the state a person is located in they are sometimes put in jail for investigation of tampering with evidence and technically they are innocent until proven guilty by a judge but when you get to the bottom of it being incarcerated or not depends on the state. 

All wrongful convictions need to be treated as priorities, but in most cases, they are not until the case is brought into the spotlight and the criminal justice starts to get judged for its accusations. The public has a huge impact on how fast the field gets to move and it gets moving because people hearing the full stories volunteer to get involved and help others get justice. Cases being published bring attention which then makes the criminal justice have to get involved and try their best to make people happy so that they won't get looked down on. When there are articles and documentaries made the public gets attached to the case and grows sympathy, which then leads to them doing their own research and finding solutions.

As a result, coming down to solutions is arduous and time consuming but if it’s done right the first time many problems can be avoided. The criminal justice system is putting in as much as it can to just end up getting the bad image away, and it's unfair that people are asking for the impossible. The more years they cover crimes, the more knowledge they gain and the stronger they become as a field. My organization will be a traveling group there to benefit innocent people and the criminal justice system. Although it might seem like criminal justice runs slow, they are at least attempting to fix their mess by getting more people involved to help solve cases. The organization will be pushing things to be quicker and going over cases, even if they are not in the spotlight. The criminal justice industry is not letting these cases go unseen or heard of, but it's quite difficult to solve so many problems in other people's time instead of theirs.