3 ms·
Interesting. I bet this rate would be a useful element in a corruptness index for countries.
by pg 16y ago
Interesting. I bet this rate would be a useful element in a corruptness index for countries.
- ZachPruckowski 16y agoI'd model a criminal conviction as indicative of one of four possibilities: 1) Defendant is guilty and the police did their job right, bringing strong evidence to the prosecutor. 2) Defendant is innocent, but there's a weight of misinterpreted evidence that his defense fails to overcome. 3) Defense is exceptionally shoddy in the face of an average-to-weak prosecutorial case. 4) Corruption. To disentangle the effects of gains in (1) & (4) on increases in the conviction rate, you need a metric of police efficiency that's unaffected by corruption. For instance, a country with DNA or fingerprint forensics will have a higher conviction rate than one without DNA/fingerprints, but as a result of solid police work, not as a result of corruption.
- patio11 16y agoOver seven nines of charged cases in Japan most years. 100 pct of all jury trials ever. Do we win? (I do not think it is a very useful metric. Japan has a problem, but it is forcing confessions as the sole investigatory tactic, not corruption. The conviction rates for any Western democracy should be ninety plus, or prosecutors are bringing cases they should know are insufficient, to the detriment of the public and innocent alike.)
- nandemo 16y agoI agree that it's not a very useful metric. On the confessions: Japanese police can detain suspects and question them days on end without allowing them to talk to a lawyer.