The Research Of Public Opinion's Effect On Criminal Justice

Public opinion reflects not only equitable judicature but a will for social justice. However, confliction occurs between the public opinion and justice in the recent hot criminal cases. Public opinion supposedly in accordance with the law varies in practice and imposes impact on jurisdiction. This paper clarifies the influential mechanism and elements of public opinion with full application of classical cases so as to reach a reasonable joint of public opinion and judicature.Four aspects are touched upon in illustrating the influence:First, the paper redefines the public opinion in a paradigm shift applying Ludwig Wittgenstein linguistic philosophy to explore the meaning and application of public opinion, to describe its basis and process of formation, and to analyze the three prominent traits - the bounded rationality, changeability, and emotionality. Public opinion is divided into different subcategories for thorough discussion - potential and expressed ones considering the expression of will; indignation and compassion considering the emotional inclination; mainstream and non-mainstream ones considering the social impact. The conclusion is drawn thereafter - the public opinion in the criminal justice scope should be the expressed one affecting the criminal trial and exerting a certain pressure.Second, the classical cases are analyzed qualitatively in order to demonstrate the influence on trial practices. Choosing according to the division of indignation and compassion six samples including Zhang Jinzhu Vehicular Manslaughter the paper comes out with a deep analysis of media concern, public pressure, traits depiction, impact reflected in the final conviction and sentence.Third, based on the sample analysis above, it is possible to reach a mode of public opinion development including five phases of media concern, public commenting, the emergence of public opinion representative, intensification of public expression, and authoritative power. The judge in the micro-perspective is the director of a trial and could be affected by the public for personal preferences, development, and interruption of other powers. Public opinion does not dominate the criminal justice and its influence on the final judgment varies in difference cases. Five integrated elements determining the impact - the authoritative power, intensified public expression, public opinion representative, public emotional inclination, and the involvement range work out to some extent as influential factors in criminal justice. Meanwhile, it is worth noting that the trial environment may exert extra influence in practice. Public opinion impact may also be paralyzed by the contradictory expert opinions, the definite regulation of conviction and sentence in criminal law and individual sophistication of the judge.Finally, the paper analyzes the principle of selection and regulation of public opinion in criminal justice. Appearance of justice is taken in the paper as an effective joint for the reasonable existence of public opinion and theoretically speaking, a fair and just judgment could also be accepted by the public. Meanwhile, the interruption of public opinion should be brought onto a reasonable level because of the basic demand for not only the "apparent" justice but justice in procedure and entity. The paper proposes in the end that the public opinion impact is only confined in the area such as hard case. Therefore, it is necessary to construct a systematical mechanism of public opinion involvement on the levels of collection, adoption and guidance.