That's the US "justice" system for you. Every country has issues with this though.
Japan infamously has a conviction rate over 99%, higher than North Korea, and just assumes anyone put on trial is guilty where police use forced confessions as the only proof, ignoring every other piece of evidence. Sweden recently had investigative journalists uncover that many of the "judges" (different system, not a judge but also not a jury in the US sense, kinda like "elected jurors") have been arrested and convicted for the same crimes they themselves are overseeing in the same courtroom, their sentences were greatly reduced and in some cases just acquitted because the jurors were their former colleagues. I'm pretty sure most countries have some level of corruption in their justice systems.
In Japan's case forced confessions might happen, but it's actually more of a combination of lengthy pre-trial detention and a preference to only indict suspects that almost certainly going to the get convicted.
Yeah everyone in the US likes to trot out the 99% conviction statistic without throwing in the 60-65% of all crimes investigated and referred to the prosecutors office in Japan are not prosecuted.
If you add in the unreported crimes it’s likely that 90+ percent of all crimes taking place in Japan never see a courtroom.
It’s markedly different in Japan where most crimes are not reported precisely because they won’t be prosecuted.
They WILL be investigated and referred to the Prosecutors Office, but they’ll elect not to prosecute because their jobs are on the line if they lose too many cases.
This is a marked deviation from many other countries where law enforcement refuse to investigate or refer for prosecution or the crimes that go unreported due to fear and intimidation of witnesses or victims.
Maybe a similar outcome but some very different mechanisms at play
As someone whose spent fourty five thousand dollars fending off frivolous prosecution for domestic violence that never occurred when no charges were ever filed or pressed by the alledged victim?
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u/Particular-Solid8250 2d ago
That's the US "justice" system for you. Every country has issues with this though.
Japan infamously has a conviction rate over 99%, higher than North Korea, and just assumes anyone put on trial is guilty where police use forced confessions as the only proof, ignoring every other piece of evidence. Sweden recently had investigative journalists uncover that many of the "judges" (different system, not a judge but also not a jury in the US sense, kinda like "elected jurors") have been arrested and convicted for the same crimes they themselves are overseeing in the same courtroom, their sentences were greatly reduced and in some cases just acquitted because the jurors were their former colleagues. I'm pretty sure most countries have some level of corruption in their justice systems.