12. Law Flashcards
The tendency for the presence of a weapon to draw attention and impair a witness’s ability to identify the culprit.
Weapon-focus effect
The tendency for people to be more accurate at recognizing members of their own racial group than of other groups.
Cross-race identification bias
The tendency for false post-event misinformation to become integrated into people’s memory of an event.
Misinformation effect
A mechanical instrument that records physiological arousal from multiple channels; it is often used as a lie-detector test.
Polygraph
The pretrial examination of prospective jurors by the judge or opposing lawyers to uncover signs of bias.
Voir dire
A means by which lawyers can exclude a limited number of prospective jurors without the judge’s approval.
Peremptory challenge
A method of selecting juries through surveys that yield correlations between demographics and trial-relevant attitudes.
Scientific jury selection
A jury-selection procedure used in capital cases that permits judges to exclude prospective jurors who say they would not vote for the death penalty.
Death qualification
The jury’s power to disregard, or “nullify,” the law when it conflicts with personal conceptions of justice.
Jury nullification
The tendency for jury deliberation to produce a tilt toward acquittal.
Leniency bias
Inconsistency of sentences for the same offense from one judge to another.
Sentencing disparity
A dispute-resolution system in which the prosecution and defense present opposing sides of the story (practiced in North America, Great Britain, and a handful of other countries).
Adversarial model
A dispute-resolution system in which a neutral investigator gathers evidence from both sides and presents the findings in court.
Inquisitorial model
