jury decision

• Factors that can affect a jury's decision making

  • Gender
  • Race
  • Attraction
  • Clothing
  • Similarity
  • Apparent profession
  • Accent
• Characteristics of the defendant

  • It is possible that, in criminal trials, juries may base their judgements of guilt on more than just the facts of the case
  • These extra legal factors may include particular characteristics of the defendant
• Characteristics of the defendant that will be considered

  • Attractiveness
  • Race
  • Accent
• Attractiveness leniency hypothesis (ALE)

  Attractive defendants are treated more favourably by juries than less attractive ones
• Abwender and Hough (2001) found that female participants were more lenient towards an attractive female defendant, and less lenient towards and unattractive defendant. Male participants displayed the opposite tendency
• Schvey et al (2013) found that obese female defendants were judged more harshly by male jurors than slim female defendants, therefore showing that appearance does affect the decision making of the jury
• Schvey et al (2013) only used male jurors so attractiveness may not affect the decision of the jury if the jury is mainly female, therefore the extent characteristics of the defendant affect the decision making may be limited
• Bradbury and Williams (2013) found that juries comprised of predominantly white jurors were more likely to convict black defendants, as were juries made up of mostly Hispanic jurors
• Pfeiffer and Ogloff (1991) found that participants overwhelmingly rate black defendants guiltier than white defendants, especially when the victim is white
• Carter and Mazzula (2013) found that there was ingroup and outgroup bias when deciding on the outcome of an employment case, so showing that race does affect the jury and their decision making
• Dixon et al (2002) found that ratings of guilt was significantly higher in relation to the Birmingham accent, suggesting this is a further factor that may influence jury decision-making
• The impact of the instructions of the judge may also have a significant effect on the jury decision making (Reed, 1980) so it may be that the effect of the characteristics of the defendant are reduced depending on the judge's instructions
• Pre-trial publicity (PTP)

  Information given to the public, eg on TV news, before a trial
• Steblay et al (1999) found that those who were exposed to negative pre-trial publicity were significantly more likely to return a guilty verdict (59%) than control groups who were not (45%)
• The research suggests one possible remedy would be to hold trials that attract extensive PTP in following locations
• The more publicity there is, the more the schema has become entrenched
• Strength of research in this area

  • It is ethical as it involves mock juries and "imaginary" cases
  • This allows researchers to manipulate variables in a way that would not be practical or ethical in a real trial
• Weakness of research

  • Other untested factors may affect real juries
  • The results are often inconsistent
• Patry (2008) found that mock jurors who discussed the case were more likely to find an attractive defendant guilty whilst those that discussed less were more likely to find a plain defendant guilty
• The effect of attractiveness on the decision-making process may vary depending on other factors, which makes firm conclusions difficult
• Jurors should be reminded (by the judge and other court officials) of the need to remain impartial, and not to let extra-legal factors distort their interpretation of the evidence
• When jurors were given the instruction that they had to find the defendant guilty beyond reasonable doubt, the racial bias effect disappeared
• Research using mock trial

  • Adds to the credibility of psychology as a science
  • Allows greater control of extraneous variables
  • Allows cause and effect relationships to be established
• Weakness of mock trial experiments

  • Low external validity as they do not represent real trials
  • In mock trials there is nothing hanging on the outcome
• The British legal system is regarded as being one of the best in the world, and trial by jury is a cornerstone of the process
• The studies details here however, suggest that the system is not infallible, and factors such as characteristics of the defendant and pre-trial publicity may indeed have some bearing on the final outcome
• Whether these findings would be replicated in real cases, when the states are higher, remains a matter of debate