Crime Topic 4

Question 1

Dixon hypothesis

Answer 1

It was predicted that a Brummie suspect would have stronger attributions of guilt than a standard accented suspect. Also looked at the influence of race of suspected and type of crime committed

Question 2

Dixon procedure

Answer 2

Pps listened to a 2 min recorded transcript (convo was between a male police officer and young male suspect), matched guise procedure to manipulate accent, race manipulated by contextual cues in the transcript. Suspects level of guilt from innocent to guilty on a 7 point scale, speech evaluation instrument

Question 3

IV & DV

Answer 3

IV- accent, race, type of crime (armed robbery/cheque fraud)
DV-Pps attributions of guilt

Question 4

Dixon findings

Answer 4

The Brummie suspect was rated lower on superiority and rated more guilty

Interaction between the Brummie accent/black suspect/blue collar higher guilt findings

Question 5

Dixon Conclusions

Answer 5

A range of social psychological factors can influence perception of a suspects guilt including accent, race and type of crime

Question 6

Conclusion 2

Answer 6

Decisions about guilt may be affected by accent in a British context and non English speakers are perceived as more guilty

Question 7

Conclusion 3

Answer 7

The perception of a suspects language attitudes of superiority and attractiveness may predict whether they are found guilty/not guilty

Question 8

Application- presenting evidence in story order

Answer 8

(1) Lawyers create a timeline, evidence presented in story order
(2) Jurors develop a coherent story- jurors tend to accept the version of the story from either defence or persecution which is more complete & coherent
(3) Judge gives direction- judge sums evidence and advises the jury on how to come to a verdict
(4) Juror matches story to possible verdicts

Question 9

Usefulness

Answer 9

Helps jurors create a timeline to help them understand & match their account to the judges summary. Useful strategy for lawyers to influence jury decisions

Question 10

Effectiveness

Answer 10

Pennington & Hastie 92 found that story order was more persuasive with juries than using witness order. If both persecution and defence use story order the advantage is cancelled out

Question 11

Practicalities

Answer 11

Defence or persecution Ned to collect and categorise all evidence before the trial so that its presented in the most effective story order to influence juror decision making

Question 12

Wilbur castello

Answer 12

Investigated in a jury setting, 71 male 74 female. Found that when the defendant was rated attractive guilty verdicts were 54% against 76% when unattractive

Question 13

Evelyn maeder

Answer 13

During sexual assault trials when the D was white, attractive victims were rated as more responsible for the assault than unattractive reversed for black D