contemporary study Bradbury and Williams 2013

Question 1

describe the aim of the study

Answer 1

• to investigate whether the racial composition of a jury and the race of the defendant has an effect on the decision making process
• hypotheses 1: black defendants will be more likely to be convicted by juries consisting of a high number of white jurors
• hypotheses 2: black defendants are more likely to be convicted by juries consisting of a higher number of hispanic jurors

Question 2

describe the procedure of the study

Answer 2

• Bradbury and Williams used secondary data from a different study of juries carried out 12 years later
• the earlier study analysed trials in 4 US states: Arizona, California, New York and Washington
• bradbury and williams thought that this data would be less artificial and preferable to data produced by mock juries as it is gathered from real trials
• only black defendants used because they make up 60% of the cases
• 7 control variables (quantity of evidence, length of the tiral, how long the jury deliberated for, the case type, the type of attorney etc) that were taken into account to prevent there being any confounding factors
• data was analysed using logistic regression, a statistical technique used when there are two possible outcomes for the dependant variable

Question 3

describe the findings of the study

Answer 3

• juries comprising in a higher percentage of white jurors were more likely to convict black defendants
• juries comprising a higher percentage of hispanic jurors were more likely to convict black defendants
• black defendants were more likely to be convicted of drug crime than violent crime regardless of the composition of the jury
• none of the other control variables investigated had a significant influence on conviction rates

Question 4

describe the conclusions of the study

Answer 4

• racial composition of a jury has a significant effect on the likelihood of conviction
• there may be an out-group bias in relation to the judgements applied in criminal cases by jurors
• balance of race is an important consideration when juries are selected

Question 5

describe the advantages of the study

Answer 5

• the study has high external validity because data from real juries was analysed
• the researchers used secondary data from real trials
• this is an advantage over previous studies of jury decision making that have set up mock trials using imaginary defendants as a means of gathering data
• the researchers avoided possible demand characteristics which increases the external validity of their findings

Question 6

describe the disadvantages of the study

Answer 6

• a weakness of the investigation was that other characteristics of the defendant apart from race were not controlled
• although bradbury and williams were careful to control other factors that may have confounded the results of the investigation
• other characteristics of the defendants may have influenced the verdict of the jury
• there is evidence that the defendant’s attractiveness and accent play an important part in the decision-making process
• these were not considered within this study
• reduces the validity of the evidence because it is unlikely that jurors based their judgement on race alone

Question 7

describe the applications of the study

Answer 7

• the study has implications for the way in which real juries are selected
• in the American legal system the peremptory challenge allows the defence or prosecution team to object to the composition of a jury on the grounds that it might unfairly prejudice the outcome
• the Batson rule prohibits such an objection on the grounds of race
• the results of the study suggest that the racial mix of a jury should be considered carefully to promote fairness, particularly when defendants are black