Crime Topic 4

Question 1

Key research- Dixon et al

Answer 1

Sample: 119 white undergraduate psychology students (24 male, 95 female) from university college Worcester. 25.2 years. Anyone who grew up in Birmingham was excluded. Randomly assigned to 8 conditions.

Procedure: independent measures design. 2 minute recording based on a transcript of an interview in a police station.

• a 20 year old male who was accused of a crime.
• 40 year old male police inspector with a standard accent.

The DV’s were:
Whether the criminal was black or white.
Whether he had a standard or brummie accent.
Whether he was accused of a white collar (fraud) or blue collar (armed robbery) crime.
(The same voice actor was used who changed his accents).
-participants ranked on a bipolar scale 1-7 from innocent to guilty.

-it was found that a black criminal with a brummie accent who committed a blue collar crime was found the most guilty

Conclusions: some accents (brummie accents) are deemed guiltier than others.

Question 2

Penrod and Cutler

Answer 2

• lab experiment with independent measures design.
  -sample (mock jurors) was undergraduate students and experienced jurors.
  DV- their verdict
  IV
  -In one condition, the witness said she was 80% confident on the identification of the suspect and in the other she said she was 100% confident.

Results:
In the condition where witness said she was 80% confident on the identification, the suspect was found guilty 60% of the time.
In the 100% confident condition, the suspect was found guilty 67% of the time.

There was a significant difference showing the confidence of the witness persuades jurors.

Question 3

Castellow

Answer 3

Aim: juries make judgements on personality based on a persons looks.

Trial: 23 year old secretary receptionist accused male employer of sexual harassment.

-Participants shown pictures of defendant and secretary in 4 combinations:

• Attractive secretary and defendant: 71% of jurors found guilty
• Attractive secretary and unattractive defendant: 83% found guilty
• Unattractive secretary and attractive defendant: 41% found guilty
• Unattractive secretary and unattractive defendant: 69% found guilty.

Conclusion: jury make judgements about motive and character of defendant based on appearance.

Question 4

Pennington and Hastie

Answer 4

Aim- to test hypothesis that juries are more persuaded by story order than witness order (e.g. getting the strongest witness story last).
Method:
Participants asked to be mock jurors in murder trial. Lawyer representing defence and prosecution varied in order of which evidence was presented.
A story order (defence) story order (prosecution) = 59% found guilty.
B Witness order (defence) and witness order (prosecution) = 63% found guilty.
C story order (defence) and witness order (prosecution)= 31% found guilty.
D witness order (defence) and story order (prosecution) = 78% found guilty.

All lawyers advised to use story order strategy.

Question 5

Broeder

Answer 5

Participants on jury service asked to take part in mock trial.
They listened to tapes of evidence from previous trials and asked to decide as if they were hearing a case.
30 experimental juries listened to the case of a woman being injured by a man who had driven his car recklessly.

-The driver said he had liability insurance or no liability insurance and in some trials the judge said this evidence should be inadmissible.

No insurance- 33000 dollars awarded
Had insurance- 37000 dollars awarded
Had insurance but the judge told the jury to disregard this- 46000 dollars awarded. 9000 dollar increase.
-the judge telling jury to disregard makes jury react to assert their freedom and independence.