Criminal Defendants Research Articles

Failing at Face Value: The Effect of Biased Facial Recognition Technology on Racial Discrimination in Criminal Justice

Recent years have seen a rise in the development of technological innovations and their implementation in various industries. Specifically, law enforcement agencies across the United States have partnered with technology companies to deploy facial recognition algorithms in the identification and prosecution of criminal suspects. Yet there is concern that law enforcement’s use of facial recognition algorithms based on biased mugshot data pools can lead to criminalizing innocent civilians. Prominent theories including intersection theory, instrumentalization theory, and Alvarado’s theory were analyzed to review arguments that justify concern. We find that intersection theory is supported by empirical evidence that women of color are put at the greatest disadvantage from technological bias; instrumentalization theory is supported by examples of both positive and negative implementations of facial recognition technology, and Alvarado’s theory further suggests the possible reinforcement of existing biases by these poor applications of technology.

Diversity must be at the heart of equitable AI development

Developers need to make sure that the models artificial intelligence (AI) learns from provide an accurate reflection of the real world. It can be used make decisions in high-stakes contexts, such as finding criminal suspects, informing loan decisions and assisting medical diagnoses. AI should not reflect societal biases and needs to consider diversity and ethical standards throughout the development process. In this article the goal is to develop best practices and techniques optimising for fairness, ethics, privacy, and transparency in AI training datasets as well as considering diversity in AI developers.

제3자 복호화명령의 도입에 관한 비교법적 고찰

Even if the investigative agency knows that the crucial information necessary to investigate the crime is stored in the mobile phone, unless the password is released, there is no proper way to confirm or secure it. Although the number of cases requiring forensics that can find the substantive truth of a case using digital forensic technology is rapidly increasing every year, successful decryption of mobile phones is not so common that they are considered a major obstacle to digital forensics success. It is a social problem that the case is buried because the relevant information necessary for the discovery of the substantive truth of an important event is not secured in a timely manner.
 As a solution, the method of forcing the suspect to release the mobile phone password or requesting their cooperation through the decryption order system can be considered. However, this may excessively infringe on personal privacy and may violate the constitutionally guaranteed privilege to refuse self-incrimination. This is because the violation of the right to refuse to make a statement can be a problem depending on whether it is understood as personal information or a statement according to the characteristics of the mobile phone password.
 Therefore, it was investigated whether the introduction of the decryption order to unlock the password of the mobile phone infringes on the basic rights guaranteed by the Constitution. This is because the degree of protection will vary depending on whether the view of the password is personal information or personal information and whether it is a statement or not, that is, depending on the nature and status of the password. In this case, if it is impossible to force a decryption order on individuals such as criminal suspects due to the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution, we examine whether it is possible to force a decryption order or request cooperation from a third party, a mobile phone manufacturer, to solve this problem. searched for. In particular, third parties and companies were divided into mobile phone manufacturers and information and communication service providers, and reviewed from the perspective of protection and exceptional use of personal information.
 In principle, personal information is subject to protection under the current law, and exceptional use other than the purpose of collection is specifically stipulated in the “Personal Information Protection Act”. However, since the specific interpretation and application are not necessarily clear, we looked at foreign legislative cases comparatively in relation to the provision of personal information to a third party. Although there are means to acquire, this method of cooperation takes a long time, so it was judged that it is not an appropriate means for securing evidence for digital crimes in the information society. In addition, the introduction of a decryption order to a third party is necessary as a means to secure criminal information not only to domestic companies under judicial jurisdiction but also to global companies abroad. It also struggled to find a harmonious way with an appropriate balance to raise the problem of discrimination.

Profile of Embedded Validity Indicators in Criminal Defendants with Verified Valid Neuropsychological Test Performance.

Few studies have examined the use of embedded validity indicators (EVIs) in criminal-forensic practice settings, where judgements regarding performance validity can carry severe consequences for the individual and society. This study sought to examine how various EVIs perform in criminal defendant populations, and determine relationships between EVI scores and intrapersonal variables thought to influence performance validity. Performance on 16 empirically established EVI cutoffs were examined in a sample of 164 criminal defendants with valid performance who were referred for forensic neuropsychological evaluation. Subsequent analyses examined the relationship between EVI scores and intrapersonal variables in 83 of these defendants. Half of the EVIs (within the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Digit Span Total, Conners' Continuous Performance Test Commissions, Wechsler Memory Scale Logical Memory I and II, Controlled Oral Word Association Test, Trail Making Test Part B, and Stroop Word and Color) performed as intended in this sample. The EVIs that did not perform as intended were significantly influenced by relevant intrapersonal variables, including below-average intellectual functioning and history of moderate-severe traumatic brain injury and neurodevelopmental disorder. This study identifies multiple EVIs appropriate for use in criminal-forensic settings. However, based on these findings, practitioners may wish to be selective in choosing and interpreting EVIs for forensic evaluations of criminal court defendants.

Sentencing: A social process re‐thinking research and policyC.TataCham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. 2020. 177pp. €58.84 (hbk); €46.00 (ebk) IBSN: 978‐3‐030‐01059‐1; 978‐3‐030‐01060‐7

Sentencing: A social process re‐thinking research and policyC.TataCham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. 2020. 177pp. €58.84 (hbk); €46.00 (ebk) IBSN: 978‐3‐030‐01059‐1; 978‐3‐030‐01060‐7

Equal justice under law? Prosecutor demographics and the death penalty

AbstractPrior research has established that crime victims’ and defendants’ demographic traits affect the sentence that criminal defendants receive. In addition, previous studies have found that judges’ and juries’ biases affect the outcomes in criminal cases. Yet, despite significant scholarly attention to the effect of race and gender on criminal sentencing, no previous study has explored whether prosecutors’ demographic traits influence the outcome of criminal cases. This is surprising, given that prosecutors are responsible for determining what crimes defendants are charged with and whether to pursue the death penalty in eligible cases. Here, we utilize data on federal death penalty‐eligible cases and the prosecutors who tried those cases to explore whether federal prosecutors’ demographic traits have an effect on whether the death penalty is imposed. We find that both race and gender have statistically significant effects on whether a defendant receives the death penalty, even when case‐specific effects including victim and defendant characteristics are controlled for.

Perceptions of policing among criminal defendants in San Jose, California

Perceptions of policing among criminal defendants in San Jose, California

THE MANY LIVES OF CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY

THE MANY LIVES OF CONSTANCE BAKER MOTLEY

The beyond a reasonable doubt standard of proof: Juror understanding and reform

The beyond a reasonable doubt (BARD) standard of proof is the foundation of criminal court proceedings in the U.S. However, both empirical and field studies alike demonstrate that jurors do not correctly interpret and apply the standard. Misinterpretations of the standard can have large implications for criminal defendants on trial. Thus, researchers and legal scholars have attempted to clarify the standard through various methods (e.g. quantification, reasoning, linguistic simplification, and procedural changes), and some of these methods have promising features. The purpose of the current review is to provide a comprehensive overview of these proposals and determine future directions for researchers and legal practitioners.

Make or Buy? The Provision of Indigent Defense Services in the United States

Abstract Most criminal defendants cannot afford to hire an attorney. To provide constitutionally mandated legal services, states commonly use either private court-appointed attorneys or a public defender organization. This paper investigates the relative efficacy of these two modes of indigent defense by comparing outcomes of codefendants assigned to different types of attorneys within the same case. Using data from San Francisco, I show that in multiple defendant cases, public defender assignment is plausibly as good as random. I find that public defenders reduce the probability of any prison sentence by 22% and the length of prison sentences by 10%.

The Burden of Criminal Justice Debt in Federal Community Supervision

The federal criminal justice system routinely requires convicted individuals to pay fines, restitution, and special assessments as part of their sentence. These criminal justice payments are an obligatory condition of federal community supervision, which a vast majority of convicted individuals are compelled to undergo. Although some of these legal financial obligations are intended to hold people accountable for criminal behavior and address crime victims’ financial losses, they also create a significant barrier to supervision success by imposing heavy economic burdens on those least able to afford them. The financial obligations imposed on the majority of federal criminal defendants both frustrate the practice of community supervision as well as create onerous and long-lasting criminal debt. The government’s inability to recover most financial legal obligations demonstrates the futility of continuing our current supervisory debt practices. Permitting courts to determine a financial assessment of a defendant’s ability to pay, allowing partial debt waiver, and creating an income-based fines and fees system would help ameliorate some of the crushing debt obligations resulting from community supervision. Unpayable criminal justice debt serves no one.

Evaluating the cumulative impact of indigent defense attorneys on criminal justice outcomes

This study utilizes meta-analysis to synthesize estimates of the impact of public defenders and assigned counsel on the severity of imposed legal sanction at several decision points encountered by criminal defendants as they progress through the criminal justice system. While public defenders and assigned counsel have some notable effects on specific court outcomes such as pretrial detention and sentencing, the meta-analysis results show that they are just as successful overall as private attorneys in representing their clients' interests. The defendant's indigent status most likely explains why the clients of public defenders and assigned counsel may sometimes confront more severe sanctioning because the effects of pretrial confinement reverberate throughout the entire criminal justice system. The frequently observed deleterious consequences associated with pretrial confinement have engendered repeated calls to eliminate cash bail in determining pretrial release.

Prevalence of mental disorders in defendants at criminal court.

Psychiatric morbidity in prisons and police custody is well established, but little is known about individuals attending criminal court. There is international concern that vulnerable defendants are not identified, undermining their right to a fair trial. To explore the prevalence of a wide range of mental disorders in criminal defendants and estimate the proportion likely to be unfit to plead. We employed two-stage screening methodology to estimate the prevalence of mental illness, neurodevelopmental disorders and unfitness to plead, in 3322 criminal defendants in South London. Sampling was stratified according to whether defendants attended court from the community or custody. Face-to-face interviews, using diagnostic instruments and assessments of fitness to plead, were administered (n = 503). Post-stratification probability weighting provided estimates of the overall prevalence of mental disorders and unfitness to plead. Mental disorder was more common in those attending court from custody, with 48.5% having at least one psychiatric diagnosis compared with 20.3% from the community. Suicidality was frequently reported (weighted prevalence 71.2%; 95% CI 64.2-77.3). Only 16.7% of participants from custody and 4.6% from the community were referred to the liaison and diversion team; 2.1% (1.1-4.0) of defendants were estimated to be unfit to plead, with a further 3.2% (1.9-5.3) deemed 'borderline unfit'. The prevalence of mental illness and neurodevelopmental disorders in defendants is high. Many are at risk of being unfit to plead and require additional support at court, yet are not identified by existing services. Our evidence challenges policy makers and healthcare providers to ensure that vulnerable defendants are adequately supported at court.

The Truth Machines: Policing, Violence, and Scientific Interrogations in India

ABSTRACTHow do police get witnesses and criminal defendants to tell the truth? And in what ways do the truth‐seeking activities of law enforcement create and remake the identity of the state? These questions lie at the heart of Jinee Lokaneeta's fine book, The Truth Machines. For anthropologists of law and politics, the book offers a lens into the ways that nations try to prevent the torture of citizens, paradoxically by promoting a different kind of torture. It is a story of how state officials move torture from dusty police interrogation rooms into futuristic forensic laboratories and hospitals.

Investigation of the Criminal Suspects in Local Population Through Forensic Indicators, A Cross-Sectional Study

The aims and objectives of current study were to identify the real criminal persons from suspects through modern scientific forensic technology. Methodology: A wooden stick, assaulted person’s cloth with blood strains, blood strains on the ground and some hairs from the hand of victim were collected at crime scene. And samples of accused ones were also collected. Dry blood sample was collected from the crime scene by Bloodstain Pattern Analysis while 3ml blood sample of 100 office employees were taken in the tube and was centrifuged at x10000 rpm for analysis and DNA profiling. Fingerprints were analyzed from the wooden stick by Latent printing and were compared to suspects. DNA sample also collect from hair follicle for analysis. Results: DNA profiling of Aggravated Assault on different biological aspects were analyzed, the analysis were showed that blood strains on assaulted person’s cloth has cross matching regression stranded mean deviation (1.0± 0.01) with office employees and blood strains collected from ground also have cross matched correlation with (3.0± 0.03) suspects respectively. The mitochondrial DNA of hair follicles which was in hands of Aggravated Assault at the time of crime scene has a significant (P<0.05) cross match with suspects (2.10± 0.02) DNA. Conclusion: The findings of this study through biological and non-biological aspects were significant (P<0.05). Total five persons were marked as criminal from all selected suspects by considering their DNA profile cross matching and finger prints cross match correlations with Aggravated Assault. Keywords: Aggravated Assault, suspects. Deoxyribonucleic acid

Locally fitting hyperplanes to high-dimensional data

Problems such as data compression, pattern recognition and artificial intelligence often deal with a large data sample as observations of an unknown object. An effective method is proposed to fit hyperplanes to data points in each hypercubic subregion of the original data sample. Corresponding to a set of affine linear manifolds, the locally fitted hyperplanes optimally approximate the object in the sense of least squares of their perpendicular distances to the sample points. Its effectiveness and versatility are illustrated through approximation of nonlinear manifolds Möbius strip and Swiss roll, handwritten digit recognition, dimensionality reduction in a cosmological application, inter/extrapolation for a social and economic data set, and prediction of recidivism of criminal defendants. Based on two essential concepts of hyperplane fitting and spatial data segmentation, this general method for unsupervised learning is rigorously derived. The proposed method requires no assumptions on the underlying object and its data sample. Also, it has only two parameters, namely the size of segmenting hypercubes and the number of fitted hyperplanes for user to choose. These make the proposed method considerably accessible when applied to solving various problems in real applications.

Can transportation subsidies reduce failures to appear in criminal court? Evidence from a pilot randomized controlled trial

The failure to appear (FTA) for a scheduled court hearing can have serious consequences for a criminal defendant. Many have speculated that transportation is a material barrier to court appearance. We provide evidence from the first randomized controlled trial of transportation subsidies to reduce FTAs, conducted jointly with public defenders and the transportation authority in Seattle, Washington. The most intensive intervention was a transit card providing 2–3 months of free public transportation. While the experiment is underpowered due to COVID-19 disruptions, our pilot results allow us to bound the treatment effect and derive estimates of cost effectiveness under alternative assumptions. Our results suggest that transportation subsidies alone do not have large benefits for this aspect of criminal justice.

Plain Trials: Culture and Competence in the Courtroom

The presence of Plain people in the justice system historically involves civil disputes. A more recent trend is the presence of Plain people as criminal defendants. In tandem with their appearance in criminal proceedings is the question for some of competence to stand trial. Competence assumes a factual understanding of the legal process, the ability to assist counsel in preparing a defense, and an appreciation of the charges and case. In the decades since the Supreme Court ruled on competence, the evolution of definition, criteria, and assessment have focused on mental capacity and deficits. The contribution of culture has been marginalized. This article reviews the elements of competence to stand trial and restoration of that competence when it is lacking and applies them to Plain people. Two case studies demonstrate the impact of culture. Rarely considered, culture can have a profound influence on comprehension and appreciation of the judicial process and exacerbates issues of competency for a defendant who presents with cognitive impairments.

AFL‐CIO Says One Thing, Does Another on Union Corruption

Unfortunately, unions and corruption have often been linked. It might be said that the stories of embezzlement schemes and misappropriation of members' dues remain the same from decade to decade, although the union involved varies. In recent years, the United Auto Workers (UAW) has seen more high‐ranking former officials indicted as criminal defendants and convicted than other unions. In spite of the following actions in 2021 involving UAW corruption, the AFL‐CIO has refused to condemn them.

‘Curb sitting’: An evidence-based policing practice or an officer safety myth?

ABSTRACT Law enforcement officers across the country are trained in various tactics and techniques intended to increase the overall safety within a police-citizen contact. One common, albeit controversial tactic is referred to as “curb sitting”. The curb-sitting tactic is generally associated with officers requiring criminal suspects to sit on a curb with their legs outstretched in front of them. The tactic is believed to provide officers additional reaction time to defend themselves from an attack but is also considered unnecessarily demeaning. The efficacy of the curb-sitting tactic has not previously been determined. The current study is the first to evaluate three common variations of the curb-sitting tactic to determine which, if any seated position allowed officers more time to respond to an attack when compared to a subject standing five feet away. Our results show that a seated subject with their legs extended is associated with a significant increase in time to cross five feet when compared to a standing subject. Based on these results, the curb-sitting tactic appears to be an evidence-based method of increasing an officer’s time to respond to an attack. Implications for law enforcement training and tactics, as well as recommendations for future research are discussed.