Wrongful Conviction

Imperfections in the criminal justice system have long intrigued the general public and worried scholars and legal practitioners. InWrongful Conviction, criminologists C. Ronald Huff and Martin Killias present an important collection of essays that analyzes cases of injustice across an array of legal systems, with contributors from North America, Europe and Israel.Using this cross-national perspective, the volume offers detailed discussions of specific legal systems while also considering issues that transcend national boundaries. Differences in court procedures are explained as contributors ask what role the respective criminal justice systems play in preventing or generating wrongful convictions. Most importantly, this collection includes a number of well-developed public-policy recommendations intended to reduce the instances of courts punishing innocents. It also offers suggestions for compensating more fairly those who are wrongfully convicted.

C. Ronald Huff is Professor of Criminology, Law and Society as well as Sociology at the University of California, Irvine.

Martin Killias is Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology at the Universities of Zurich and Lausanne.