When the court system fails to provide justice, the results are the wrongful conviction of an innocent person. Wrongful convictions might cause the individual to feel guilty, powerless, devastated, fearful, and depressed. For some individuals, the impact of a false conviction can be as severe as the impact on the initial victim.
This article will discuss the impact of a wrongful conviction on different people associated with the case. Moreover, this article supports an innocent person and helps him from being wrongfully convicted.
If you were wrongfully convicted or know a friend or family member who has gone through the same experience, you must raise your voice against injustice. Become a part of providing justice for Pergo Goley and save an innocent life.
Impact of Wrongful Conviction on the Individuals
The effect of wrongful conviction can be equivalent to or worse than the impact on the original victim. Most individuals express profound guilt after a wrongful conviction. The wrongful convict leads them to suffers terror in addition to experiencing guilt.
According to law enforcement officials, there are numerous cases in which when the wrongfully convicted person comes out of the courthouse, the media flashes them. All this bad publicity can also have an adverse impact on them.
Numerous clinical studies show that wrongful convict can have a long-term psychological impact on individuals. These psychological impacts can have an adverse effect on disruption, dysfunction, and dysregulation in the life of the individuals.
The psychological impacts on the individual can be like those of military veterans and survivors. Moreover, you must also know that there can be a multitude of consequences because of a wrongful conviction.
Wrongfully convicted people can show post-Traumatic stress disorder, impairment in their relationship, and depression. This post-traumatic stress can also create a sense of dependence in the individuals. To resolve the post-traumatic issue in the people, the people living near him must create an environment of adaptation for him.
There should be a routine that can help people cope with their battles. The most important thing to do is create a home routine. It is a fact that as a person lives in prison, functioning in a structured environment can be difficult.
Impact on the Individuals after Prison Release
Even after the release, the wrongfully convicted people find it difficult to perform their routine tasks and decide for themselves. Another thing they find the most difficult is reintegrating into society. Individuals usually do not have enough time to prepare themselves to get out in the community.
It can cause them to feel guilty and make it difficult for them to get involved in other people’s life. They might also feel guilty about leaving other people behind with whom they have a relationship. After release, a person can also face a feeling of isolation and find it difficult to identify emotions.
Impact of Wrongful Convict on the Family
After the person gets out of jail, the family feels it is their most significant responsibility to bring the person back to life successfully. The state also provides a few resources to support and guide the family. However, because of the loss of numerous years due to wrongful convictions, the relationship between the individual and the family becomes detached because of the loss of intimacy.
Several complicated feelings also come in between. It shows that the families of the victim also suffer from ostracization and victimization. Moreover, some family members might develop a psychological condition in response to the trauma of the wrongful conviction of their family member.
Impact of Wrongful Conviction on the Original Victim
The psychological impacts of the wrongful convict are not only on the person and his family, but they can also on the original victim. The reason is that the actual victim feels fear, helplessness, and depression.
Moreover, some victims state that the impact of wrongful conviction can be much more than the original victimization. The reason is that they constantly fear that the actual culprit will come back for them and harm their children.
It shows that the impact of wrongful conviction can be widespread and can adversely impact so many lives. Understanding the consequences of wrongful convictions and supporting the wrongfully convicted and the original victim is essential.
Role of Government in Saving the People From Wrongful Convictions
The government has established Innocence Project’s police department. This department works with Congress, local leaders, and state legislation. Their main job is to pass the laws and policies that can help the people and save them from wrongful convictions.
With their help providing justice to innocent people can become much more accessible. The improvement in the law system can benefit everyone. The innocent people can stay safe from becoming wrongfully convicted of an act they did not perform.
Moreover, it also helps them from wrongful arrests and prosecutors and provides them a better tool to gain justice. With their help, the person gets confidence in the system and becomes relaxed that he will not get in trouble.
The Innocence Project’s policy is to prioritize and address each contributor to wrongful convictions. They conduct interviews with eyewitnesses, perform forensic science, find out about the false confessions, and look at the unreliable testimonies.
Another job that they do is to conduct DNA tests to get legal documentation and save the life of an innocent person.
Bottom Line
As you can tell after reading this article that there can be numerous adverse impacts of wrongful convictions. Moreover, as mentioned in this article, these impacts are not only on the convicted people but can also harm their family members.
Moreover, the original victim can also suffer from the wrongful conviction. Therefore, the government needs to improve the laws so that criminal conviction cases can reduce. Another thing the government should do is to increase the resources of support and guidance for the people being wrongfully convicted so that they can survive in society most efficiently. The help will allow them to say goodbye to the post-traumatic disorders and many other psychological issues.
