All nations within the Anglosphere (US, UK, CA, AU & NZ) have JD imposed towards citizens. I know that the US & Canada both inherited that from Britain, which explains why they have it. However, should it be entirely only the judge making the conviction (some countries operate on a lay-judge system meaning juries aren’t used, such as Finland or Japan for example) rather than leaving that decision up to jurors?
Japan has an incredibly high convicted rate.
this is not a good thing.
Not only for the obvious reason (or, well, the one I think is obvious), but also because tons of crimes go unreported or never followed up on because the system doesn’t think it will get a conviction and lower the rates. This includes rape and sexual assault.