Component 3: Crime - Psychology in The Courtroom Flashcards
What characteristic of witnesses and defendants persuade the jury?
Physical appearance: body modifications, attractiveness, clothing
Speech: accents, colloquialisms
Age
Gender: women seen to be less guilty
Lack of remorse
Behaviour of the defendant e.g. shouting/slouching
Racial prejudice
How does attractiveness influence juries? (Stewart)
Stewart (1985) investigated the impact of appearance on jury decisions. They hypothesis for the study was that there would be a negative correlation between attractiveness of the defendant and the severity of the punishment. Stewart observed real trials by sitting in the public gallery. They observed 80 trials. The defendants were mostly male (56/60) and 27 black, 3 hispanic and 30 white.
Observers rated defendants on a range of rating scales including physical attractiveness, neatness, cleanliness and quality of dress.
They found no correlation between race and attractiveness. The less attractive the defendants were judged to be, the more severe the punishment.
How does attractiveness influence juries? (Sigall and Ostrove)
They asked 120 participants to suggest a sentance for burglary or fraud, eitehr with or without seeing a picture of the defendant. The photo showed either a physically attractive person or physically unattractive person. Results showed participants suggested significantly longer sentances for burglary for unattractive defendants and the reverse for fraud.
How does race influence juries?
Pfiefer and Ogloff showed that white university students rated black defendants as more likely to be guilty than white defendants and this effect was even stronger when the victim is described as white.
In real trials there is also evidence that black defendants are more likely than white defendants to recieve prison sentances when found guilty of similar crimes.
What theories is Dixon’s study based on?
Accents may affect the listener’s impression of speaker
Standard accents are rated more positively than non-standard accents - especially on traits associated with competence or status.
A foreign accent undermines a person’s credibility. Because an accent makes a person harder to understand, listeners are less likely to find out what the person says as truthful.
What was the aim of Dixon’s study?
To test the hypothesis that having a Brummie accent would recieve a higher rating of guilt than a standard accent. It also aimed to see whether race or type of crime would make any difference to how the suspect was judged.
What was the research method of Dixon’s study?
A lab experiment.
IV - accent type, crime type and race
DV - attributions of guilt
Independant measures design
Describe the sample of Dixon’s study.
Took place in the psychology department in University College Worcester using 119 white undergraduate students (24 male, 95 female) who participated as part of their course requirements.
Participants from Birmingham were excluded.
Describe the procedure of Dixon’s study.
Participants listened to a 2 minute long recorded conversation based on a transcript of a real interview that took place in a Birmingham police station. The police officer and defendant were played by confederates.
On the tape the police officer interrogated the man who was pleading innocence to the crime he was accused. The crime type changed depending on which condition the participant listened to. The accent also changed from brummie to standard. The race of the defendant was described in the inspectors description of the suspect.
After listening to the interview participants rated the suspects guilt on a 7 point rating scale.
What were the results of Dixon’s study?
Significant effect of suspect’s accent on attributions of guilt by participants with the brummie accented, black suspect who committed the blue collar crime receiving significantly higher guilt ratings.
How does order of presentation influence the jury?
This is a technique that can be employed by both the prosecution and the jury that is based on memory research. It has been found by Pennington and Hastie that jurors are more easily persuaded by ‘story order’ (presenting evidence in the sequence of events that occured) than by witness order (presenting witnesses in order of who might have the most impact) If both the prosecution and defence use this strategy neither gain an advantage.
How does using an expert witness influence the jury?
Jurors are often persuaded by the confidence of a witness. Cutler et al showed that an expert witness can persuade the jury. In this study a sample of 538 undergraduate students took part in a lab experiment. The aim was to see the effect of an expert witness who informed the jury of memory research and specifically what makes for a good and poor witness. In addition, descriptive presentation by the expert witness was more persuasive that statistical presentaion suggesting they should use style to influence the juries verdict.
