An Integrated Justice Model of Wrongful Convictions

Abstract

The innocence movement is a policy oriented enterprise consisting of activities by lawyers, cognitive and social psychologists, other social scientists, legal scholars, government personnel, journalists, documentarians, freelance writers, and citizen activists who, since the mid-1990s, have worked to free innocent prisoners and rectify perceived causes of miscarriages of justice. It developed in the 1980s and is driven by a socially constructed innocence paradigm that proposes reforms especially related to eyewitness misidentification, false convictions, expanded legal counsel, eliminating the use of jailhouse snitches, curbing prosecutorial misconduct and the like. As a policy movement, change must attend to the practices, beliefs and interests of people in the adversary, law enforcement, psychology, forensic science and polity domains.

Keywords: Wrongful Conviciton, Innocence Movement, Innocence Paradigm, Innocence Reform