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Social Science Research on Wrongful Convictions and Near Misses, 1980-2012

Metadata Updated: November 28, 2023

These data are part of NACJD's Fast Track Release and are distributed as they were received from the data depositor. The files have been zipped by NACJD for release, but not checked or processed except for the removal of direct identifiers. Users should refer to the accompanying readme file for a brief description of the files available with this collection and consult the investigator(s) if further information is needed.

This study examined how the criminal justice system avoids wrongful convictions by comparing violent felony cases that ended in an official exoneration after conviction ("wrongful convictions") with those in which defendants had charges dismissed before trial or were acquitted on the basis of their factual innocence ("near misses"). Data were collected on a total of 460 cases (260 wrongful convictions and 200 near misses), and these cases were compared quantitatively and qualitatively on variables that might explain the different outcomes. These variables included the usual causes of wrongful convictions, such as eyewitness misidentification, false confession, and forensic error, as well as demographic, social, and procedural variables.

Access & Use Information

Restricted: This dataset can only be accessed or used under certain conditions. License: us-pd

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date November 10, 2020
Metadata Updated Date November 28, 2023

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOJ JSON

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date November 10, 2020
Metadata Updated Date November 28, 2023
Publisher National Institute of Justice
Maintainer
Identifier 1171
Data First Published 2016-05-31T13:20:36
Language eng
Data Last Modified 2016-05-31T13:22:19
Rights These data are restricted due to the increased risk of violation of confidentiality of respondent and subject data.
Public Access Level restricted public
Bureau Code 011:21
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://www.justice.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 88224950-68d9-4c41-a4ec-0f9760662b7f
Harvest Source Id 3290e90a-116f-42fc-86ac-e65521ef3b68
Harvest Source Title DOJ JSON
License http://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/
Program Code 011:060
Publisher Hierarchy Office of Justice Programs > National Institute of Justice
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 974498655c5d0f50bf9efe5cb78f16b1d8ea5dd3579132fdd6095a2543568f96
Source Schema Version 1.1

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