factors influencing jury decision making (pack 8) Flashcards
what are the two types of information that jurors may receive for pre-trial publicity?
factual information
emotional information
how does pre-trial publicity and schema theory link?
exposure to it means that jurors already have schemas about the criminal case they are involved with because they have factual and emotional knowledge on the case
what is the case study for pre-trial publicity?
O.J Simpson
what did Fein (1997) study for pre-trial publicity?
real O.J Simpson case and cuttings from newspapers and set up a mock jury to see if it would affect
around 80% said guilty if given pre-trial
only 40% voted guilty if race mentioned in pre trial
what did Thomas (2010) study on pre-trial publicity?
analysed 62 real cases
70% remembered pre-trial if high-profile case
11% remembered pre-trial if low-profile
what did Ogloff and Vidmar (1994) study on pre-trial publicity?
looked at the effect of television as a form of PTP, in real sexual abuse case child.
concluded that television publicity had more influence than printed media
concerning as TV is 24hrs a day
3 strengths of pre-trial publicity as an evaluation factors influencing jury?
psych as a science- lab based experiments back this up, support the ideas
application- 24/7 news channels dangerous and online social media commentary
ethics- tends to use mock juries
3 weaknesses of pre-trail publicity as an evaluation factors influencing jury?
ethical issues- ethically constrained
practical issues- low ecological validity, mock jurors do not reflect influence of real pre-trail pub ppts understand they are not on a real jury
reductionism- problem in research, experimental studies must isolate and manipulate the IV ect. oversimplifies the way in which jurors decide guilt
what are the four types of characteristics of the D that affect the juries decision?
attractiveness
race
accent
gender
what is the social cognition process of stereotyping involve?
noticing something about a person
categorising them to a particular group of people based upon this characteristic
assuming the person has the other characteristics of that group
How does the cognitive approach to stereotyping involve
schemas already exist based upon pre trial that influence
how does attractiveness of the defendant affect the jury?
research has shown that attractive D’s are threated more leniently than unattractive D’s unless they used their attractiveness to aid their crimes
what did Sigall & Osgrove find?
found that more attractive Ds got shorter sentences for burglary than unattractive Ds
but longer for fraud
What did Castellow et al (1990) find?
showed that a guilty judgement was most likely when a female secretary was attractive and the male was unattractive.
what hypothesis did Abwender and Hough (2001) investigate?
attractive leniency hypothesis
what did Abwender and Hough find?
found that female ppt were more lenient towards an attractive female D and less lenient towards unattractive D
Males displayed opposite tendency
what were some conclusions from Abwender and Hough?
attractive defendants do not fit the stereotype of a criminal
within our society, physical attractiveness is prized highly in both sexes (halo effect)
what is the halo effect?
when our perception of a person we meet is influenced by one positive trait that makes us think positively
What did Dion et al discover within the halo effect?
physically attractive people are assumed to have other attractive properties, she gave photos for people to judge.
To do with Race, what is believed to be true within jury decision making?
That African Americans are more likely to be found guilty and given the death penalty than white defendants
what did Pfeifer and Ogloff (1991) find out to do with race?
white uni students more likely to say that a black D was guilty than a white person in the same crime
what did Bradbury and Williams (2013) discover about race?
analysed data from real juries that white jurors were more likely to convict black Ds and so did mostly Hispanic jurors
high % of black jurors less likely to convict black jurors
in group - out group bias
what did Skolnick and Shaw find that contradicts previous evidence of race influencing jurors?
whether the jurors were black or white, the black D had less guilty verdicts
may be because of socially desirable answers
What did Mahoney and Dixon (1997) find out about accent affecting the juries decisions?
two minute recording of someone with a Brummie accent and someone without
B accent perceived as more guilty
