Impacts of China’s Strike Hard Policy on Forensic Evidence

Abstract

The media has reported numerous miscarriages of justice in China, some of which directly result from errors in forensic evidence as a main cause. Given that such miscarriages occurred under the influence of China’s Strike Hard Policy, empirical studies on its impact on forensic evidence, par-ticularly that leading to miscarriages of justice will be conducted at multiple levels with diverse research methods. The old policy officially took effect mainly from 1983 to 2005, when problems in forensic evidence significantly produced more miscarriages of justice. The old policy’s impact on forensic evidence will be further explored based on data that were collected from experiments conducted with 394 questionnaires and 100 judges in four sample cities, just before and after the old policy was replaced with a balanced policy in late 2005. Surveys to elicit the traits of forensic identification were used, as well as the exogenous imposition of the old policy to identify its negative impacts on forensic evidence, combined with new policy effects. The 2005 reform towards balancing leniency and severity is essentially inadequate to prevent errors in forensic evidence.