The Victimology of a Wrongful Conviction

This book exposes the myriad of victims of wrongful conviction by going beyond the innocent person who has been wrongfully incarcerated to include the numerous indirect victims who suffer collaterally. In no way overlooking the egregious effects on the wrongfully convicted, this book widens the net to also examine consequences for family, friends, co-workers, witnesses, the initial victims of the crime, and society in general-all indirect victims who are often forgotten in treatments of wrongful conviction. Utilizing interviews of exonerees and indirect victims, the authors capture the tangible and intangible costs of victimization across the board. The prison experience is examined through the lens of an innocent person, and the psychological impact of incarceration for the exoneree is explored. Special attention is given to the often-ignored experience of female exonerees and to the impact of race as a compounding factor in a vast number of miscarriages of justice. The book concludes with an overview of the victimization experiences that follow exonerees upon release. Unique to this book is its interdisciplinary approach to the troubling subject of wrongful conviction, combining perspectives from a number of fields, including criminal justice, criminology, victimology, psychology, sociology, social justice, history, political science, and law. Undergraduate and graduate students in these disciplines will find this book helpful in their respective areas of study, and professionals in the legal system will benefit from appreciation of the far-reaching costs of wrongful convictions.

Nicky Ali Jackson is a Professor and Coordinator of Criminal Justice in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Purdue University Northwest (PNW). Dr. Jackson is the Executive Director of the Center for Justice and Post-Exoneration Assistance at PNW. She also serves as President of the Willie T. Donald Exoneration Advisory Coalition. Dr. Jackson is a 2021 recipient of the prestigious Sagamore of the Wabash Award, the highest civilian honor, bestowed by Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb for her humanity and service to the citizens of Indiana. Kathryn M. Campbell is a Professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa, Canada and has published extensively in the area of miscarriages of justice. Dr. Campbell is the faculty director of Innocence Ottawa, a pro-bono, student run innocence project aimed at helping the wrongly convicted who are seeking exoneration apply for conviction review to the Minister of Justice. Margaret Pate is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at Radford University. Dr. Pate is also the Associate Director in the Office of Undergraduate Research & Scholarship at Radford.

Foreword by Lenore Walker Preface by Jeffrey Mark Deskovic Section I. Victimology: The Wrongly Convicted as Victims 1. Introduction: Definitions, Methodology, and Demographics 2. Victimology: Theoretical Perspectives and their Applications to the Wrongly Convicted 3. The Nature and Extent of Wrongful Convictions 4. Victimizing the Innocent: Racism, Wrongful Convictions, and Exonerations of Black Men in the Criminal Legal System Section II. The Many Victims of a Wrongful Conviction 5. The Exoneree as Victim 6. Female Victims of a Wrongful Conviction: Continual Marginalization 7. Family as Victims of a Wrongful Conviction 8. Revictimization of the Original Victim 9. Society as a Victim of a Wrongful Conviction 10. Post-release Victimization: "Freedom is Never Free" 11. Final Thoughts and Future Considerations