Psychology and the Courtroom (Cognitive) Flashcards
Outline the affect of attractiveness on courtrooms (S and O)
Sigall and Ostrove (1995)
Students read a report of a crime where a female committed burglary or fraud and was described as attractive or unattractive.
The attractive defendant was given a much shorter sentence for burglary, and a much higher sentence for fraud because the jurors may assume for fraud that beauty was used to manipulate people in cases of fraud due to the nature of the crime.
Outline the affect of attractiveness on courtrooms (C)
Castello (1990)
Participants were told that they would be reading a sexual harassment case and would have to answer questions on it.
With the case were attached photographs of the victim and defendant. These were previously categorised by a panel of individuals as either attractive or unattractive.
When the defendant was was attractive, guilty verdicts were found 56%. However, when the defendant was unattractive the guilty verdicts were a lot higher.
When the victim was was attractive, guilty verdicts were given 77%. However, when the victim was unattractive, the guilty verdicts were a lot less.
Outline the affect of race on the court room
Ogloff (1991)
He found that white university students rated black defendants as more likely to be guilty than white defendants.
What are some strengths of courtroom research?
Mock trial method is far more ethical and practical
The mock trial method can be highly standardised and easily replicated
The findings from mock trials can help to improve the judicial system
What are some weaknesses of courtroom research?
Juries receive evidence that is not reflective of what the real jury would receive.
Mock trials are usually much shorter than an actual trial.
Mock trials tend to be made up of university students
In a mock trial there is no emotional connection to the case.
Outline the aim of research by Dixon
To test the affect of accent and race on verdicts of court cases by a jury
What was the research method?
Lab experiment, in the Department of Psychology of University Collage, Worcester.
What was the IV?
Accent (Birmingham/standard)
Race (black or white)
Type of crime (blue collar/white collar) (armed robbery/cheque fraud)
What was the DV?
Participants’ attributions of guilt.
What was the sample used?
199 white under graduate psychology students
People with a brummie accent or grew up in Birmingham were eliminated from the study.
Participants were randomly assigned to conditions (8 conditions)
Outline the audio of the clip used in the expeirment
Participants were asked to listen to a recorded conversation based on the transcript.
A natural code switched read both transcripts for both a brummie and standard English accent. There were no differences in pitch or loudness.
Rating the suspect’s guilt on a 7 point scale from innocent to guilty.
Using the Speech Evaluation Instrument (SEI), which is a measure of language attitudes.
What were the results of this research?
The Brummie suspect was rated more guilty.
Analysis revealed that the Brummie accent/black suspect/blue collar had the highest guilt ratings.
Outline research by Castello to influence the Jurys decision making
Castello (1990)
As the research suggests that jurors may judge by appearance, defendants should be advised to dress formally for court and by neatly groomed with no visible tattoos.
The aim is to give a good first impression and avoid negative judgement.
Outline the CSI affect
Schweitzer and Saks (2007)
The found that crime TV shows paint unrealistic expectations where forensic evidence is more high tech than it really is.
This means they expect too much of the prosecuting or they have an exaggerated faith in evidence.
This is especially true with DNA evidence.
However, a study by Kim et al (2009) did not support the notion that exposer to CSI (or similar programs) impacted at all on the way jurors made decisions about evidence.
