In White Bear the main "protagonist" is most certainly a criminal, however through the film we see only her confusion. She remembers nothing about her past life, only vague subconscious feelings and images of uneasiness. Thus to the uninformed viewer she has always been innocent. This, I would say is not because of our actually being uninformed, but because of her lack of mental faculties and original context. She doesn't seem innocent because of film trickery, but because of her mental health at this point, she is innocent.
If given that the whole purpose of justice is to penalize a perpetrator, usually equal the amount their crimes, to instruct and to discipline, then it is required that the perpetrator know what their punishment is for so that it is not repeated. If there is no memory or faculties to draw on for correction, then punishment for crimes the dont realize they committed isn't the correct treatment. This is precisely what is happening in White Bear in the duration of the fabricated apocalypse. The woman doesn't realize she is even being punished until the very end. In our Bill of Rights, it is made clear that a person is to be informed of the nature and cause of an accusation (not even mentioning no cruel and unusual punishment). Proper justice isn't being carried out if the perpetrator has no grounds to base it off of. Rather, because of having no memory to instruct and change, the "justice" becomes essentially useless.
Mental health comes up frequently in our own justice system. After recognizing poor mental heath, treatment, not prison, is the next step. This is done for the same above logic: without grounds to change an act, nothing can be changed; rather the crime was indicative of a disorder.
Granted, the woman in White Bear had no mental illness originally (we can assume). Her association to murder was deserving of punishment sure enough. But the continuation beyond a sentence and brainwashing took away any possibility of rehabilitation. This wasn't the administration of justice, but rather the obscuring of it.
I think you stumbled on an interesting avenue of White Bear: "without grounds to change an act, nothing can be changed; rather the crime was indicative of a disorder." The position of not only the Protagonist is without an ability to change or get out of her disorder constantly reliving her trauma, but the rest of the White Bear Justice Park is too. They're not able to move on, they'll keep repeating the same mistakes, no matter how many times they're torturing her. It won't end even if she dies, because they're replaying the same actions over and over, ad infinitum. The Definition of Insanity is repeating the same thing twice and expecting a different result. So is there a culturally accepted level of insanity in their society, and by extension, ours? One thing that White Bear never brings up is the goal, the next step of her punishment. Is this an execution? Rehabilitation? Or someone made an example of? There can be no end if the society isn't looking for one.
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