factors affecting jury decision making

Question 1

paragraph 1 - racial bias

Answer 1

• a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgement made solely on an individuals race
• if a white jury then black person more likely to be found guilty
• black male drug users 3x more likely to be found guilty than white

Question 2

paragraph 1 strength - devine et al

Answer 2

• found that human judgement is affected by schemas and characteristics of defendants including race gender and social class

Question 3

paragraph 1 weakness - williams and holcomb

Answer 3

• found that defendants race didn’t predict death sentences in ohio between 1981 and 1994

Question 4

paragraph 2 - attractiveness bias

Answer 4

• the tendency to see attractive people as more intelligent, competent, moral and sociable than unattractive people
• more attractive defendant will be treated more leniently than an unattractive one

Question 5

paragraph 2 strength - taylor and butcher

Answer 5

• mock jury study that looked at attractiveness of defendant
• fictitious write up of a mugging with a photograph of defendant attached
• more likely to find less attractive ones guilty

Question 6

paragraph 2 weakness - abwender and hough

Answer 6

• female jurours were harsher to an unnattractive defendant than they were to an attractive one however male jurours showed the opposite effect
• shows gender differences

Question 7

paragraph 3 - accent

Answer 7

• when the accent is imbued with cultural stereotypes, it can lead to bias and discrimination
• the birmingham (brummie) accent is most likley to be convicted

Question 8

paragraph 3 strength - dixon et al

Answer 8

• recorded conversation between a male suspect and police officer, accent varied with either birmingham/ standard british
• guilty ratings higher for the brummie accent

Question 9

paragraph 3 weakness - task validity of dixon et al

Answer 9

• study played a tape recorder of police interview in which race is suggested and no other evidence is given
• not representative of real life legal proceedings which would happen in a case

Question 10

paragraph 4 - race

Answer 10

• poulsen found that white defendants were treated more harshly than black defendants
• dixon can also be related to race as black ppts werent rated significantly more guilty than white ppts

Question 11

paragraph 4 strength - austin and allen

Answer 11

• found that the arrest rate explained 43% of disproportionality in commitment rate
• race influencing likelihood of conviction

Question 12

paragraph 4 weakness - mazzella and feingold

Answer 12

• found no significant effect on racial bias on either judgements of guilt or sentencing decisions