Psychology + The Courtroom (cognitive) Flashcards
how does the UK court system work
- jury reach a verdict, based on the case made against the defendant by the prosecution + the case for them, by the defence (either privately or court appointed).
- jury usually made up of 12 randomly selected members of the public, aged between 18 & 75. They are selected from the electoral register and must attend (or face a £1000 fine). They’re instructed to base their verdict purely on the evidence they hear in court and should therefore assume defendant is innocent until proven guilty beyond all reasonable doubt.
how we are able to investigate juries
In UK it’s illegal to speak to jury members while trail is in progress, also many rules surrounding the reporting of trials + no recording equipment is allowed in the courtroom. Therefore, many studies have used different ways to research courtroom behaviour. The two strategies used most are mock trials and shadow juries, both have their limitations
Therefore, makes it difficult to study real juries. Instead, a variety of methods are used these include:
- Shadow juries
- Mock juries
These juries simulate what happens in courtroom however researcher can manipulate variables
mock juries
Jurors given trial material + re-enact roles e.g judge, jury + asked to make judgements on:
- degree of responsibility
- guilt or innocence of the accused
- type of sentence they think is appropriate.
shadow juries
12 people who are eligible for jury service are asked to sit in the public gallery (so they hear first hand all the evidence) and then retire to a private room to consider their verdict.
advantage of mock trial
Allows you to study decision making , can gain quantitative and quantitative research
disadvantage of mock trials
- judge won’t be there.
- One legal team will be entirely different and the other probably won’t exactly match the real trial.
- While lawyers are typically so competitive that both sides try hard in a mock trial, the incentive for the “opponent” to win is different from the real thing.
- mock jury usually won’t hear (and thus won’t like, dislike, or be confused by) live witnesses in the presentation phase of the mock trial.
- lawyers will condense their presentation of evidence and documents which will almost certainly improve the presentation, but also make it different from a “real” trial.
- jurors’ relationships with each other + group dynamic will be different after shorter trial.
impressions that may affect a juries decision
- Attractiveness
- Witness confidence
- Race of the defendant/victim
- The use of a child witness
- Use of language
- Gender of Jury
Dion et al. (1972)
- suggested what is beautiful is good.
- using 60 psychology students they found that attractive people are more likely to be viewed as having socialy desirable personalities and are less liely to be convicted of a crime
individual factors that might affect whether we perceive someone to be guilty or not guilty
- Lakoff (1975) found that when witnesses use “hedges” in their testimony (e.g. “I think” or “perhaps”) they are seen as less believable
- Bagby, Parker, Rector and Kalemba 1994 found females were more likely to convict an offender of rape than males
- Hans and Vidmar 1982 found the young are more likely to acquit whereas those who were highly educated were more likely to convict
- Ross et al. found that female jurors were significantly more likely to find a defendant guilty than male jurors (58% compared to 38%), when a child gave evidence against them.
background
Seggie (1983) examined effect of three regional accents (British received pronunciation; broad Austrialian and Asian) on raters’ attributions of guilt, + found there were significant differences, but that this varied by crime type. Those with broad Australian accents were more likely to be perceived as guilty when the suspect was accused as a blue collar crime (in this case assault), whereas those with British RP accents were more likely to be perceived as guilty in white collar crimes (in this case, theft)
aim of dixon
To investigate whether suspects with a Brummie-accent would be more likely to be perceived as guilty, and how this interacted with their race (black or white) and the type of crime they were accused of (blue collar or white collar).
keys for crime
- Blue-collar crime can refer to violent acts, such as murder, sexual assault and armed robbery. It also includes non-violent crime such as prostitution, illegal gambling and more.
- White-collar crimes consist of a range of criminal actions committed by government and business professionals. Including: Fraud, Money laundering, Bribery and tax evasion
(blue collar – armed robbery or white collar – cheque fraud).
the 8 conditions
- Brummie, black, blue collar crime
- Brummie, black, white collar crime
- Brummie, white, blue collar crime
- Brummie, white, white collar crime
- Standard, black, blue collar crime
- Standard, black, white collar crime
- Standard, white, blue collar crime
- Standard, white, white collar crime
sample
University College Worcester
119 white (24 male, 95 female) mean age of 25.2 years
Psychology undergraduate students
participated for course credit.
Participants who grew up in the Birmingham area were
eliminated.
proceure
Students randomly assigned to conditions + heard audio tape (recorded in the appropriate accent). was based on a real interview recorded at British Police Station in 1995, + involved middle aged male police inspector interviewing a young male suspect who plead his innocence.
was recreated using actors; a standard accented man in his mid-40s played the role of the inspector, and the young suspect was played by a man in his early 20s who spoke with a standard accent but could easily switch to a Brummie accent.
pilot study used to establish validity of accents used, in which 95% of people tested were able to identify the accents correctly, with no noticeable differences in volume or pitch.
