Hi, need to submit a 1250 words paper on the topic The Main Problems in the American Justice System. It also has been proven that eyewitness testimony accounts for “4,000 or more false convictions annually in the United States” (Duke, Lee, and Pager, 2007). This is definitely a staggering number that draws researchers to study eyewitness testimony as related to eyewitness memory. John C. Yuille and Judith Daylen (in Payne, et al., 1998) explained in their research that a person that is traumatized by a crime (either as a witness or a victim) incurs a high level of stress that decreases eyewitness accuracy. There tend to be gaps and confusion in the eyewitness’ memory of what actually happened and the order in which it happened. Details that are crucial to the case may be overlooked, forgotten or sometimes even changed. This is why reliance on eyewitness testimony leads to a high number of erroneous convictions.
Jury deliberations also present the system with more problems. A very prominent criticism lies in the role of the foreman, who is chosen immediately by a group of strangers. The foreperson, chosen because of experience or sometimes, just mere charisma, brings with him or her all his personal biases and beliefs, which can lead to prejudiced thinking. The same goes for all the other jurors because “when Americans assemble injuries, they do not leave behind the status, power and privileges that they hold in the outside world” (Sanders, 1997 quoted in Fulwider, 2005). Because of this, the jury cannot be considered as highly capable to mete out justice and think fairly and impartially. In fact, this is also the reason why lawyers do a background check and use this information to pick out the jurors that they think are more sympathetic to their side. Thus, even from the start, the trial is already staged with persuasion tactics.
I believe that there is something that can be done for frustration-induced aggression. Although it is inevitable in contact sports, it can be prevented or minimized in other situations. Children should be made aware of this theory early on so that they know that they should avoid goading and teasing their peers when one has failed or they should not deliberately thwart a friend’s plans of reaching a particular goal as these can lead to physical violence. In this way, these children will grow up to become cautious and considerate of other people’s feelings and instances of frustration-induced aggression can be reduced.
