Survival analysis of average time to justice delivery in the Northern Region of Ghana

Abstract

In this study, survival analysis was used to determine the mean time to justice delivery in the District, Circuit and High courts in Tamale Metropolis of the Northern Region of Ghana. Three main models, namely; Kaplan-Meier estimator, Cox regression, and gamma distribution were utilized in the analysis to explore all useful information that can help policy makers and stakeholders in minimizing delays in justice delivery in the law courts. Results produced by the parametric probability distributions were similar to those of the semi-parametric, Cox regression model. Of the independent variables under consideration, four of them i.e sex of the accused, number of subsequent hearings of a case, type of court handling the case, and the type/nature of case were found to contribute significantly to the mean time to justice delivery. Moreover, it was observed that, males constituted 76.7% of the accused persons and 23.3% females for both criminal and civil cases. Also, it was evident from the study that cases terminated faster in the Circuit and High courts as compared to the District court. Finally, it was found that civil cases tend to have shorter life spans than criminal cases.