Criminal: Topic Four Flashcards
What is topic four?
Psychology and the courtroom
What is the key research for this topic?
Dixon
What did Dixon look into?
The role of accent and context in perceptions of guilt
What research method did Dixon use?
Lab experiment
What was Dixon’s aim?
To test the hypothesis that a Brummie accent suspect would receive a higher rating of guilt than a suspect with a standard accent and also whether race or type of crime would make a difference
Describe the sample in Dixon’s study
119 white undergrad students who participated due to course requirements (University College Worcester)
How long was the recorded conversation that the P’s had to listen to? (Dixon)
2 minutes
What was the conversation based on? (Dixon)
A transcript of an interview in Birmingham Police Station
Describe the suspect (Dixon)
A student in his 20s who spoke both accents
What is the example used of a blue collar crime?
Armed robbery
What is the example used of a white collar crime?
Cheque fraud
What did P’s have to do after listening to the tape? (Dixon)
Complete a rating scale on a 7 point scale from innocent to guilty
What significant effect was found? (Dixon)
The suspects accent to the attribution of guilt by the P’s
Which accent was rated higher in guilt? (Dixon)
Brumie
What 3 way interaction was found?
Accent, race and crime type
Which combination of factors created the most guilty suspect?
Brummie, black and blue collar crime
What did Penrod and Cutler look into?
Witness confidence
What resource did P’s have to analyse? (P&C)
A videotaped mock trial
What was the IV? (P&C)
Whether the key female witness stated that she was 80% or 100% confident with what she had seen
When the witness was 100% confident, what percentage of the jury found D guilty? (P&C)
67%
When the witness was 80% confident, what percentage of the jury found D guilty? (P&C)
60%
What did Castellow look into?
Attractiveness
What were mock jurors asked to read? (Castellow)
A trial summary
Describe the trial summary given to P’s (Castellow)
A 23 year old secretary was accusing her male employer of sexual harrassment
What were the mock jurors shown to help them to decide whether D was guilty? (Castellow)
Photos of the claimant and the defendant
What did Castellow find?
That when D was less attractive than V then he would more likely be found guilty than an attractive D
What did Pennington and Hastie look into?
Story order
What hypothesis were P and H testing?
That jurors are more easily persuaded by ‘story order’ than ‘witness order’
What is story order? (P and H)
Presenting evidence in the sequence that events occurred
What is witness order? (P and H)
Presenting witnesses in the order most likely to persuade a jury
What did P and H find?
That story order was shown to be more persuasive than witness in prosecuting defendants
What did Broeder look into?
Inadmissible evidence
What was Broeder’s aim?
To examine the effect of information being ruled inadmissible by a judge
What was Broeder’s main question?
Is it possible that for at least some jury members, being told to disregard info makes it even more important?
What was the scenario given to people at the university of Chicago? (Broeder)
The case of a woman who was injured by a careless male driver
What were the results from Broeder?
Insurance - $37,000
No Insurance - $33,000
Disregard no insurance - $46,000
