A conviction is a court's formal determination that a defendant is guilty of a crime, reached through a guilty plea, a jury verdict, or a judge's finding of guilt. The opposite outcome is an acquittal, a not guilty verdict, and Scotland additionally allows a not proven verdict that functions as an acquittal; some jurisdictions, including England, Wales, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, also permit a discharge, in which a defendant is found guilty but not formally convicted. Safeguards do not eliminate the risk that an innocent person is convicted, an outcome termed a miscarriage of justice, and appeal and post-conviction relief procedures exist to address such errors. Beyond sentencing, a conviction carries collateral consequences for employment, housing and international travel, and a person's conviction record is documented as antecedents in the United Kingdom or priors in the United States and Australia. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Classification
Doctrine Category Core PrincipleThe determination by a court that a defendant is guilty of a crime. 2 Connections
In Area Of Law
Entity-backed identity for the doctrine category value this doctrine already carries as an enum fact, resolved to a doctrine entity by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The enum fact itself stays on the entity unchanged.
Long-Form Articles
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Conviction
the determination by a court of law that a defendant is guilty of a crimeView the Source 2. Conviction (Wikipedia)
IntroductionQuote, Introduction
In law, a conviction is the determination by a court of law that a defendant is guilty of a crime.
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