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Forensic Psychology exam > Chapter 7:Psychological influences on Jury selection and Judicial Decision-making > Flashcards

Chapter 7:Psychological influences on Jury selection and Judicial Decision-making Flashcards

1
Q

What is the Jury selection process?

A
  • Selection from a list of citizens
  • Part of the Jury pool
  • selected for jury
  • peremptory challenges without cause are no longer permitted.
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2
Q

What is a summary of offences?

A
  • misdemeanors
  • hybrid offences - can go either way
  • Indictable offences - drug trafficking, murder
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3
Q

How many jurors on a civil case?

A

6 jurors

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4
Q

How many Jurors on a criminal case?

A

12 jurors

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5
Q

who is exempted from being a juror?

A

Police Officers, lawyers, doctors, firefighters, and psychologists.

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6
Q

What can lawyer’s no longer due to juror members?

A

exclude them for no reason.

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7
Q

What are the characteristics of a Jury?

A
  • representativeness
  • impartiality
    - Threats to impartiality
    - enhancing impartiality:
    - Change in venue - not likely to be impartial
    - Adjournment - delaying trial - give some time, issues may change. right to a fair trial.
    - Challenge for cause - bias that would not be helpful to the case (all you know is what they say)
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8
Q

What are the reasons for Jurors to be asked to not serve on jury?

A
  • That person is not the person on the list (sally joe, not sally lee)
  • already formed an opinion
  • convicted of a crime and served more than a year in custody are excluded
  • speak a formal language in Canada (French rather than English) move to a French speaking city.
  • discharged after you have been selected because you got close to the victim or suspect
  • personal hardships
  • Ill
  • mental health crisis
  • 10 jurors can be done with criminal cases.
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9
Q

What did the Gerald Stanley Trial do for Canadian citizens in the jury selection process?

A
  • government enacted that you cannot take someone off the jury for no reason.
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10
Q

What are the Jury Functions?

A
  • Wisdom of 12 (instead of 1)
  • Conscience of the community
  • Protect against out-of-date laws
  • increase knowledge about justice system
  • Apply the law provided by the judge
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11
Q

What is jury nullification?

A

A jury can decide a law is no longer right or go against what legislation says. Override the law. (rare) Ex: jurors are not always informed that they this choice. A check against outdated laws.

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12
Q

What do they look for in studying juror/jury behavior??

A
  • Post-trial interviews
  • Archives
  • Simulation
  • Field Studies
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13
Q

What are post-trial interviews?

A

In America they can write a book or talk about it after. illegal in Canada

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14
Q

What are Archives in relation to Jury behavior?

A

Reviewing legal decisions, to try to identify what the judges’ perspectives were in making those decisions. Limitations are its hard to determine cause and effect. Only bases it on what is written down.

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15
Q

What is Simulation regarding jury behavior?

A

Allows the best control, how it is presented, how long it is presented. Problem is that these are real people but you can have a mock trial. Actors simulating testimony then studies the mock jurors and try to determine what factors might be influencing decisions.

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16
Q

What are field studies regarding jury behavior?

A

you watch a real trial unfold. you really have no way to manipulate it or control the narrative. It is not allowed in Canada.

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17
Q

What is the group process of jury decision-making?

A
  • stage 1: Orientation = Verdict driven vs. evidence-driven orientation, straw polls.
  • Stage 2: Open conflict = Normative vs. informational influences
  • Stage 3: Reconciliation
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18
Q

How do they come to a decision?

A

In stage 1 they elect a fore person, to discuss procedures or how they are going to go about deciding whether they will be evidence drive or verdict driven. Verdict is only done 30% of the time. reason as to why they think a person is or is not guilty. Evidence driven is 70% of the time. discusses verdicts evidence in conjunction with does it make them guilty or not? Open conflict phase is trying to argue for one side or the other. persuaded by evidence. Either social pressure or actual mind change happens in open conflict. Juries tend to rely on open based decisions, which usually lends to one being sueded by all the others to make the same decision. Finally, majority rules. and then the reconciliation phase happens. An attempt to ensure everyone is okay with the decision. They tell the judge. this is for civil cases.

criminal cases = depends on how many jurors.

in group process it is supposed to consider evidence at trial and the judge’s instructions. Generally, jurors will 70%-75% discuss the evidence. The other 20%-25% is spent talking about considering the judge’s instructions.

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19
Q

What is the difference between judge’s vs Jury decisions in criminal and civil cases?

A
  • Criminal cases = 75%-91% verdict agreement; juries are more to convict (84%) then Judge’s (55%)
  • Civil Cases = 64%-85% verdict agreement
    • punitive damages award decisions. ($ to pay out)
    • Personal injury cases - Judges are more apt to award punitive damages than juries.
      - Nonpersonal injury cases - juries award more punitive damages than judges.
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20
Q

What is the comprehension of scientific evidence in jurors and judges?

A

Hans (2007) (DNA)

  • had similar backgrounds in math and science
  • made similar assessments of the reliability of this evidence
  • Judges found the testimony easier to follow than juries, but both found the evidence difficult to follow
  • Similar level of comprehension of the evidence.
21
Q

What are the Jurors Comprehension Aids?

A
  1. Notetaking
  2. Asking Questions
22
Q

What are the impacts of notetaking during trial??

A
  • increases jurors’ memory and understanding it
  • increases attention
  • does not cause them to over analyze one way or the other.
  • does not slow them down
  • impartial
  • helpful
23
Q

What does asking questions allow for jurors in relation to comprehension of scientific facts?

A
  • ask questions only through judge
  • ask clarification questions
  • done in front of both lawyers
24
Q

What about the impact of disregarding inadmissible evidence?

A
  • Jurors will disregard evidence when they are provided with a logical and legitimate reason for the judge’s decision.
  • how do you forget something you now know?
  • this may cause an appeal to happen
25
Q

What is the CSI Effect?

A
  • based on the show.
  • that what you see on television is actually how things are done in collecting evidence, getting witness info, etc.
  • it is a distortion on how we view trials and the justice system.
  • Bias happens influences verdict, when facts are not a slam dunk.
26
Q

What about when they read about the case in the newspaper before being summands to court to be a juror?

A
  • mock juries presented with pretrial publicity is negative towards the accused
  • rather than jurors that never heard it
  • also can happen when you see the victim or the suspects family as well.
27
Q

What about being about to comprehend the Judges instructions?

A
  • Jurors do not remember, understand, or accurately apply judicial instructions
28
Q

What Reforms have been done to judge’s instructions?

A
  • Rewriting instructions
  • Written copy of instructions
  • Pre and post evidence instructions
  • Lawyers clarifying instructions.
29
Q

What was the percentage in the early 90s did jurors understood the judge’s instructions?

A

50%

30
Q

What is the Jury decision-making models?

A
  • Mathematical models
  • Explanation models
31
Q

What is the mathematical model?

A
  • probability, views jurors decision making as how important the evidence may be.
  • Weighing the evidence
  • research suggests that many jurors do this but not for all of the evidence.
32
Q

What is the explanation model?

A
  • more realistic model.
  • this model is how we cognitively make decisions.
  • tend to take things more seriously and try to make sense out of the evidence that is presented in trial
  • fits it all together to make the best story or best-case scenario.
  • their beliefs and interpretation of the evidence.
  • Basically, what is the best solution to the evidence
  • how we fit that story together is going to be filtered through ourselves, so we have to try not to add any bias.
33
Q

What are the six types of variables studied in predicting verdicts?

A
  1. Demographic Characteristics of Jurors
  2. Personality traits of jurors
  3. Attitudes of Jurors
  4. Defendant characteristics
  5. Victim characteristics
  6. Expert testimony
34
Q

What are the Demographic characteristics that factor into a verdict?

A

the jurors themselves, gender, racial, economic status, education. they are inconsistent. Mild on decision making.

35
Q

Does the personality traits of juror’s factor into a verdict?

A
  • someone who is dogmatic, authoritarian is more rigid in their thinking, tend to respect authority. Moderate, to render a certain verdict. High in authoritarianism is more likely to convict the suspect. Feeling of having to do the right thing. (U.S.)
36
Q

Does the Attitudes of jurors’ factor into a verdict?

A

Does not matter, no one group of attitudes over another’s attitudes, expect in capital punishment. If you are pro death penalty you are more likely to vote for a conviction or to find them guilty. Specific attitudes towards relevancy of evidence or info is generally the importance of the verdict.
- Ex: pro death more likely to recommend death to a teenager suspect. Another way is in general, belief in the trustworthiness of a witness. Attractive, rich, dresses well all seems to show trustworthiness in the eyes of bias people because we all inherent stereotypes.

37
Q

Does Defendant characteristics factor into verdicts?

A
  • attractiveness vs. unattractive people are more likely to be convicted, influences jurors. Defendant’s race can be a powerful influence on verdicts. people who look a certain way it can be based on stereotypes and found guilty because of them. white people are more likely to be found not guilty.
38
Q

Does Victim characteristics factor into verdicts?

A
  • things like SA, what the victim was wearing and past actions in their sexual lifestyle can impact the juror’s decision. Presentation of victim past history could allow a not guilty verdict. Rape shield provisions. In cases of domestic violence where a victim has hurt their abuser. Aggressive towards their abuser they were seemed to be less sympatric towards the victim. Passive victim is more likely to be sympathized with. Research done in B.C looking at how judges assessing creditability of their sexual assault of the victim has to do with the timing, children when it happened and now an adult. Judges viewed adults more positively than children. Bias. Age of victim matters. Mock trial cases both are viewed as non-bias over field cases like a real case.
39
Q

Does Expert testimony factor into verdicts?

A
  • Greater effect when shown early in trial. Best memory when the trial has begun. Facts of the case, experts need to address. Timing, and how closing it a line with your case.
40
Q

What does probability of commission mean?

A
  • strength of evidence, and previous experience. Weighed on your own personal experience. People will use police testimony when they respect police. Reject evidence because of their own experiences with police and feeling they are untrustworthy.
41
Q

What is reasonable doubt?

A

it is the core thing in a criminal case. Threshold of certainty. Is there reasonable but what is reasonable doubt? Does it mean 85% or are we okay with 55%. It is up to the judges or jury to define.

42
Q

What is the use of visual evidence like photos in court?

A
  • Gruesome photograph of victims and crime scenes
    - emotionally disturbing
    - disgust
    - Vicarious trauma effect –> PTSD and other mental health issues

Influence on Jurors
- Black and white vs. Color?
- Salerno = color gruesome photos increased guilty verdicts, via elicitation of disgust
- No bias in verdicts when photos presented in black and white

43
Q

What feeling is associated with a guilty verdict for jurors?

A

Disgust

44
Q

What are the jury stressors?

A
  • complexity of the trial
  • Decision-Making involved with the trial
  • Longer trials
  • Gender Differences: Women > Men
45
Q

How stressful do they find the process of being a juror?

A
  • overall, your average juror does fine. Variation in the individual differences.
  • added stress to more complex trials
  • a lot to think through
  • longer it is, the more difficult the questions
  • Women usually found them more stressful
  • Value in giving stress debriefings
  • To offer support and information to help psychologically
  • Broader research has found them supportive
  • Stress level in usually low so it didn’t change their mental health
46
Q

What is the impact of serving as a juror?

A

interview by an advocate for mental health care for jurors - his personal experience as a juror of a murder trial *Mark Farrant

47
Q

What percentage do jurors find it stressful to make guilty or not guilty choice?

A

44%

48
Q

What percentage is it when everyone has to agree to actually have to decide stress level?

A

49%

Forensic Psychology exam (4 decks)

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