Miscarriages Of Justice Analysis

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This paper will discuss Poyser and Milne's article entitled " Miscarriages of justice: a call for continued research focussing on reforming the investigative process" (2011). It aims to critically analyse their viewpoint that "The most frequent causes of miscarriages of justice are strongly tied to one particular part of the criminal justice process, namely the police investigative process (Scheck et al., 2000), and in particular the interview process." In the first part of this essay there will be an explanation as to what constitutes a miscarriage of justice, this will be followed by a discussion and analysis of the causes of miscarriages of justice, focussing on the police investigation, and in particular, eyewitness identification. It will…show more content…
However, it is noted, that it is almost entirely studied by psychologists (Leo, 2005), and when analysed by criminologists or sociologists the psychological findings have merely been repeated to discover the same findings or conclusions. The majority of the research, suggests, that unreliable victim, and eyewitness identification and testimony, is the most common factor that causes a miscarriage of justice (Milne et al. 2009). Although, Kapardis (1997) argued that the use of eyewitness evidence plays only a small role in crime detection, Ainsworth (2005) claims that without eyewitness testimonies a 'large proportion of criminal cases would never be brought to court'. As discussed within this paper the vast amount of studies and research surrounding the 'legal' causes of miscarriages of justice are just simply being reinvented. This will not eradicate the problem, it just highlights the need, to expand on the existing tactics, in order to accomplish a deeper understanding, of the causal factors of miscarriage of justice cases. There is also a need to search for the truth, and as all evidence has the ability to become contaminated, the CPS should acknowledge, that there is possibility, for eyewitness evidence to be contaminated also. It is essential to develop a criminology of miscarriages of justice in order to gain an in depth understanding of the root causes in order…show more content…
Therefore, impending research concerning miscarriages of justice, must stop regurgitating the same studies that have been undertaken previously, because, although some studies have lead to new legislation or policies, e.g. PACE Code D and the PEACE approach, that have reduced some causes of miscarriage of justice, e.g. tape recording interviews, this is still not sufficient. The significant research has come to an 'intellectual dead end', and, as suggested, groups of criminologists, psychologists and sociologists need to collaborate and focus on answering Leo's (2005) question of 'how and why factors, either singly or in coordination, within the criminal justice system, produce accurate or inaccurate decisions or results at various stages of the criminal process?'. It is essential that researchers begin to search out the root problems in order to conclude the predicament that is a miscarriage of

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