Female Victims of Miscarriage of Justices Dissertation

Female Victims of Miscarriage of Justices - Dissertation Example A mere fraction of such cases are eventually classified as instances of miscarriage of justice. Such is the incompetency of the criminal justice system.2 A miscarriage of justice has been defined as result in a judicial proceeding that is totally inequitable. For instance, the conviction of a defendant despite the absence of adequate evidence. The concentration of the above definition is chiefly restricted to the area of wrongful convictions, which are just one of the numerous types of miscarriage of justice. Some of the other varieties of miscarriage of justice are wrongful arrests, charges or indictments, and sentences. 3 In addition, this term also includes harassment by a law enforcement officer, the failure of a lawyer to file an appeal within the stipulated time, and the failure of correctional officials to immediately release a prisoner whose sentence has ended. It is a sad commentary of our justice system that correctional officials, defence attorneys, judges, jurors, prosecu tors and the police frequently engage in acts that constitute a miscarriage of justice. ... These consist of errors of impunity and errors of due process. The errors of due process are characterised by unwarranted harassment, detention or conviction, or the excessive sanctioning of individuals suspected of having committed a crime. On the other hand, errors of impunity take place, whenever there is a lapse of justice, which enables a culpable offender to go scot free, or evade justice. 6 Errors of impunity can result from errors of due process. For instance, if individuals are arrested, convicted and imprisoned for crimes that they had not committed, then the true offenders in these crimes is at liberty to indulge in further criminal activities. At the same time, it is possible for a real offender to be arrested, convicted and incarcerated for some other crime. Due process errors have been subjected to a greater amount of scholarship in comparison to the errors of impunity.7 Miscarriages of justice have the capacity to bring system failure to the fore, in a manner that is n ot only open but also vivid. These are difficult to ignore, regardless of whether these are based on failures to respond adequately to victimisation or on wrongful convictions. All the same, the realisation of such potential transpires only in a few cases.8 As a consequence, the presumption arises that in the majority of the instances, miscarriage of justice is not disclosed. It can also be assumed that a large number of cases, wherein miscarriage of justice transpires, are commonplace in the lower courts. Moreover, even in cases involving serious crime, such miscarriage of justice takes place and the convicted undergo their sentencing without any public awareness regarding the injustice that has transpired.9 This undesirable