Violated Trust, Conceptualizing Prosecutorial Misconduct, Article Critique Example

Schoenfeld, Heather. (2005). Violated Trust, Conceptualizing Prosecutorial Misconduct. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice.

General Research Question / Hypotheses

The emergence of wrongful convictions in courts has increased a sense of confusion and doubt into the system of the organization of justice. Understandably, such matter turned the attention of several researchers into the idea of investigating what specific elements of court norms actually influence the existence of such wrongful convictions that bring about the waste of several lives who have been wrongly accused of the crime that they were first presented along with. In this particular study, Schoenfeld tries to explore the essence by which such mistakes are committed and how their existence change the characteristics and the integrity of the court in line with handling both light and crucial cases. To note, the establishment of a theory that would define the condition of the court’s situation, is the primary mission of this particular research. Notably, this particular goal stands as the foundation of the process of research that Schoenfeld tries to complete. In relation to this, he tries to create a notable indication on how the lack of trust and the emergence of misconduct actually make the misjudged prosecutions possible for existence. The presentation of the primary question along with the hypothesis of the research could be realized to have been effective in defining the primary foundation of the research being handled herein.

Literature Review

The collection of resources for this particular research was based on finding the connection of the literature on three primary topics. One is the issue on trust, another is the issue on misconduct of the court rulers themselves, and another is on the real issue on the monopoly of information being passed and used in the courts during hearing sessions. Exploring the connection of the literary sources on these particular topics has a great impact on establishing the backbone of the study especially in relation to discussing the most prominent indicators of reality on the part of the hypothesis being presented by the author. Nevertheless, it could be understood that somehow, the use of more recent literary resources to present the indications of the actual cases that present the factual condition of the misconduct in courts result to wrong accusations could have helped in further improving the value of the research in relation to present time.

Methodology

Purely based on literary research and investigation of facts, the methodology used in this study is effective enough in pointing out that being humans as they are, court judges often assume the condition of becoming imbalanced in their decisions. These decisions have been presented to be based on the subculture of the organization that they are enjoined with along with the condition of thinking that they have developed due to the opportunities that are presented to them along with each case that they handle. This methodology is good enough yet could have had better source of strength if the author tried to explore specifically controversial cases that the readers would be able to better relate to.

Variables

While there were some cases that have been explored by the author, it was obvious that the author used the variables of human attitude and the condition of human thinking as the basis of the exploration that the study is based upon. Understanding how and why humans respond the way they do especially in handling specific situations involving the points of trust and defined conduct provides a good source of explanation as to how misrepresentation of facts occur and how distinct  human behavior impact the said situation in connection with the wrong release of judgment causing the accusation of innocent individuals.

Research Design and Sampling Procedure & units of analysis

The qualitative approach of the research specifically creates a condition of factual background for the definition of the problem and the creation of the resolution that could be represented in line with the desire to actually impose the truth on the situation. Making a real representation of the situation allows the readers to consider a realization on their part hence allowing them to seek for proper response to the current condition that involves the definition of the court’s integrity.

Analyses of Results / Findings

The analysis of the results specifically made it easier for the readers to make a good understanding of what the situation is about and how it should be faced by the individuals involved in court hearings. Relatively, the adjustments involve both the reconditioning of organizational subculture and how the individuals enjoined in such organizations respond to the said arrangements. The manner by which the author presented the said issue allows the chance by which the readers are able to see how they could be involved in the situation and how the courts should relatively attend to the matter.

Discussion and Conclusion

Both the overall discussion and the conclusion derived from such definition of situations actually provide a good distinction on what the issue is about. The manners by which the courts handle hearings today have been presented to incur flaws due to the occurrence of certain human imbalances. Through balancing these situations and elements of misconduct, it is assumed that the occurrence of misrepresented and mishandled release of judgments on accusations could be lessened. This approach makes the study more relatively connected to the factual occurrences in the courts today making it practical as a source of proper conditioning of the behavior of the people who are involved in the procedures of case hearings.