Criminological: Factors Affecting Jury Decision Making

Question 1

How many people make up a jury in the Uk?

Answer 1

12

Question 2

Who are the jury and how are they chosen?

Answer 2

Randomly selected members of the public.

Question 3

Describe jury confidentiality.

Answer 3

-No one can talk to the jury before or after the trial.
-Cannot discuss the case with anyone only allowed in jury room.

Question 4

What are the 2 types of juries used to study them?

Answer 4

-Mock juries
-Shadow juries

Question 5

Describe a mock jury.

Answer 5

• A reenactment if a courtroom in which ppts take part in a staged trial.
• Researchers may observe covertly through a one way mirror.

Question 6

Describe a shadow jury.

Answer 6

• A group of people sit in on a real-life trial in the gallery.
  -They make a decision guilty or not guilty in a quiet room where they are recorded.
• Has no influence over the actual trial

Question 7

Identify 3 factors that affect jury decision making.

Answer 7

-Characteristics of defendant
-Pretrial publicity
-Minority influence

Question 8

Describe pre trial publicity and how it affects jury decision making.

Answer 8

Involves information from the media before the trial begins and can include details of the defendants past.
Difficult to avoid in high-profile cases.
=negative impact on verdict if media portrays suspect negatively.

Question 9

How might schemas explain the impact of pre-trial publicity on a jury’s verdict?

Answer 9

• Jurors exposes to publicity may form schemas of defendant in a negative way.
• Influencing how evidence in the trial is remembered and rationalised.
  = May affect decision.

Question 10

What is the supporting evidence of pre-trial publicity as a factor affecting jury decision making?

Answer 10

Steblay:
Meta-analysis if 44 experiments with mock juries.
Found that pre-trial publicity affects jurors decision.
Exposed= 59% more likely to give guilty verdict than control group.

Question 11

Define the ‘halo effect’

Answer 11

When a specific trait biases our overall view of an individual positively.

Question 12

Describe the characteristic of attractiveness of the defendant and how it affects jury decision making.

Answer 12

Attractiveness of defendant can bias the verdict. Attractive= lenient, ugly=harsh
Attractive= friendly, intelligent, honest.

Question 13

What is the supporting evidence of attractiveness affecting jury decision making?

Answer 13

Castellow:
Mock jury trial of a 23yr old secretary accusing her employer of sexual harassment.
Attractive secretary + ugly employer
=83% guilty
Ugly secretary + attractive employer
=41% guilty

Question 14

Describe the characteristic of the race of the defendant and how it may affect jury decision making.

Answer 14

• Higher proportion of ethnic minorities in prison.
• Stereotypical view that black men are more likely to commit crime.
• Black defendants receive harsher sentencing than white defendants for the same crime.
  = stereotypes may affect jury bias.

Question 15

What is the supporting evidence of race affecting jury decision making

Answer 15

Johnson:
Group of white ppts gave more lenient punishments to white defendant than for black defendant.

Question 16

What is the supporting evidence of accent affecting jury decision making?

Answer 16

Dixon et al:
Recorded conversation played to 119 ppts. Accent either standard British or Birmingham.
Birmingham= ratings of guilt higher