Psychology & the courtroom (cognitive)

• Describe the Jury System

  • 12 members
  • Random selection through electoral roll
  • Exempt if ties to case, below 18 or above 70, mentally ill, prisoners and people on bail
  • Mandatory, failure to attend = £1000 fine
  • Unpaid but employer must release from work
  • Normal people
• What characteristics of witnesses can persuade the jury?

  • Emotions shown
  • Gender
  • Ethnicity
  • Age
  • Type of crime
  • Body language e.g. posture, eye contact
• What characteristics of a defendant can persuade the jury?

  • Emotions shown
  • Way they dress in court
  • Gender
  • Ethnicity
  • Age
  • Type of crime
  • Body language e.g. posture, eye contact
• How does witness confidence persuade the jury?

  Penrod & Cutler:

  • Past research - shown weak relationship between accuracy of wit. accounts + confidence
  • Trust that juror has in confidence of wit. undiminished even if judge advises jury to be wary
  • IM design
  • IV - female wit. said she was 80% or 100% confident on identifying suspect
  • DV - % of guilty verdict given
  • Mock jury - undergrad students & experienced jurors - brought mundane realism + and - ecol. validity
  • 100% confidence = 67% voted robber guilty
  • 80% = 60% voted guilty
  • More confident witness = more likely jury guilty verdict
• How do children as witnesses persuade the jury?

  • Conflict in needing testimony of child and reliability
  • Jury less likely to believe child as incapable of observing & remembering

  Sherry Rozell:

  • Found children good observers, more objective than adults but difficulty translating obs. into verbal accounts
  • Suggested in crimes e.g. child abuse they can be reliable witnesses in identifying perpetrators as often family
  • They find it difficult to recall chronology of events and recollection of events distorted by leading questions
• DION: How does Halo Effect of defendants persuade jury?


  Dion:

  • Used 60 psych students found attractive ppl more likely viewed as having socially desirable personalities and less likely to be convicted
• CASTELLOW: How does Halo Effect of defendants persuade jury?


  Castellow:

  • Investigated Dion: attractive def. less likely seen guilty, also whether def. more likely guilty if victim attractive
  • Mock trial, 71 male & 74 psych stud. from US
  • Told reading sexual har. case & answer questions, photos of vi. + def. provided
  • Photos categorised on scale 1-9, 9 very attractive
  • Asked "Do you think ___ guilty of S. har.?"
  • Attractive def. = 56% guilty, Unattractive def. = 76%, Attractive vic. = 77%, Unattractive vic. = 55%
  • Appearance can have powerful effect on jurors, def. advised to look their best
• How does attractiveness & crime persuade jury?

  Sigall & Ostrove:

  • 120 undergrads - even gender
  • Had to sentence def. to imprisonment
  • IV - case w/ photo fem def. attractive, unattractive or no photo
  • Att. burglary, unatt. b. , no photo b. , att. fraud, unatt f. , no photo f.
  • Ppts in unnatt. & control gave similar sentences
  • Att. def. had longer sentences for fraud and shorter for burglary & unatt. had longer for b. and shorter for f.
  • Importance of looks on jury decisions, good looking more likely to get away with it but in fraud jury think used good looks to get away with it
• How does race of defendant persuade jury?

  Maeder:

  • Found during sexual assault trials when defendant was white, attractive victims rated as more responsible for alleged assault than unattractive victims
  • Effect reversed for trials with black defendant and non existent for trials with aboriginal Canadian defendants