Factors influencing the courtroom

• Explain Pre trial publicity

  • Once a crime is committed, information is distributed by different media outlets such as TV, newspapers and social media
  • This means anyone can provide an opinion about what happened and who committed the crime
  • If many people believe the same thing the outcome of a trial can be affected before the trial starts due to jurors potentially conforming to group majority
  • Jurors may conform to be liked
• Attractiveness

  • Implicit Personality Theory suggests that physically attractive people must have attractive personalities. This can be seen throughout the media as heroes are often depicted as attractive and virtuous people while villains are portrayed as unattractive people with morally corrupt personalities.
  • Halo effect - a cognitive bias where the perception of one trait (e.g morality) is influenced by the perception of physical attractiveness. This suggests that if the defendant is attractive then the jury may find it harder to believe that they have committed a crime
• Race

  • If the jury is made up of people of the same ethnic group as the defendant they are less likely to convict the defendant but more likely to convict someone of a different ethnic origin.
  • Social identity theory suggests that anyone who is seen to be in the outgroup (different ethnic origin to the jury) will be treated more harshly than somone from the in-group.
  • Social comparison would also suggest that jurors are more likely to give a guilty verdict to someone of a different race as this makes their race seem superior.
  • Social stereotypes created by society will also influence jury decisions such as in south Africa where only black prisoners were shown to the public before apartheid ended. This could lead to a jury in that country believing if a defendant is black they must be guilty.
• Accent

  • Accent bias occurs when people are evaluated based on the sound of their words and not what they're saying
  • This may happen because listening to accented voices requires more cognitive resources
  • Also accents are a symbol of a speaker's social identity and serve as a cue for race, ethnicity, or national origin, which can cause a perpetuation of negative stereotypes.
  • Jurors feel a lack of trust towards offenders with a foreign or very heavy accent because they feel intimidated by its strength, and consequently struggle to interpret it.
  • Also, strong regional accents and the use of slang typical with an area could lead a jury to be more biased due to the stereotypical link between a geographical area and crime