P3 - C.P. - Psychology and the Courtroom (COG) - Dixon Flashcards
(39 cards)
5 facts about UK Juries
- Names randomly chosen from electoral register
- 12 People
- Sworn to secrecy until the case is concluded
- Ages 18-70 can be selected
- Not alowwed to research the case outside of court
(EXTRA LEGAL) Factors that can effect a Jury’s perception of a defendant/witness
- Appearance (Clothing, Glasses, Tatoos)
- Posture
- Dialect
- Gender, Race, Age
- Class
Roles of a Courtroom
- Judge - decides sentence, not jugment
- Barristers
- Defendant
- Witness
- Jury
- Procecution
- Public who are interested in the case
Barrister = A Lawyer with extra training so they can be in Court
Ted Bundy and Attractiveness in Court
- R_ped and killed many women
- Represented himself in Court as he was considered Attractive and Charismatic
- Despite considerable public support, evidence was too damning and he was found Guilty
- Demonstrates the effect of Attractiveness on a Ruling
Other Qualities relating to Attractiveness (some Extra Legal Factors)
- Charisma and Charm
- Confidence
- Speech
- Style
The Halo Effect
DION et al. (1972)
Attractiveness makes people (Jury) assume their Qualities/Actions are also Attractive
The One exception to the Halo Effect
‘White Collar Crime’, as Attractiveness seen as feature of a Manipulative Buisnessman
Race’s influence on the Jury
- Harsher Sentences often for Black People - bias in Judges
- Piliavin - ‘Own Race Bias’
- OJ SImpson - became more about his race than his murder, founf Not Guilty (although he was)
Language and Accent’s effect on the Jury
- RP (Queen’s English) is the best Accent for Court
- Local - mostly Northern Accents - seen as less intelectual by some
Blue and White Collar Crime
Blue - Working Class (Theft, Assalt)
White - Buisness (Fraud atc.)
Studies on Attractiveness in Court
Stewart (1985) - 60 photos of criminals were shown to participants, tended to give less Punishment if rated as more Attractive.
Sigall and Ostrove (1975) - 120 college students read an account of a crime.
* One group read that the crime was Burglary and the other group read the crime was Fraud
* In each condition the defendant was also described as Attractive or Unattractive
* Results showed that when the Attractive defendant was accused of Fraud they were more likely to be punished more harshly. Often percieved as using their beauty as a tool to commit crimes; a misuse of trust.
This research does add to the argument: Attractiveness is an Extra-Legal Factors
DIXON - SUMMARY: The Role of Accent and the Context in Perceptions of Guilt
SUMMARY
199 Psych. Students rated (on 1-5 scale) how guilty a suspect in a recording seemed - diff. accent, race, collar crime type. Brummie, Black, Blue
DIXON - IVs Manipulated
- Accent: RP ot Brummie
- Race: Black and White
- Blue/White Collar Crime
DIXON - Sample
- All white Psychology Students doing it as part of their course at Worcester Uni
- Discounted people from Birmigham due to Bias
- 199 Total (95f, 24m) - Gynocentric
DIXON - Pilot Study
- Tested whether the Brummie and RP Accents sound real
- Raises Validity
DIXON - 3 ‘b’ s
- Brummie/Birmingham
- Black
- Blue Collar
Most likely to be found Guilty of a Crime if you have the 3 ‘b’ s
DIXON - Background
- Previous research has shown that the way people speak can influence others’ perceptions of them.
- A study by Seggie (1983) found that people who spoke with an Australian Accent were more likely to be found guilty for assault while people with a RP (standard) accent were more likely to be judged Guilty for Theft.
- Dixon wanted to investigate the Birmingham (Brummie) accent as this has generally received negative perceptions from others.
DIXON - Aims
- To test if a Brummie-accented suspect would receive a higher rating of guilt than a standard accent.
- To see if race or type of crime would make any difference to the Brummie or standard accent’s guilt rate.
DIXON - Procedure
- Participants listened to a 2min recorded conversation of a police officer interrogating a suspect, based on a real life transcript that took place.
- Officer - 40-year-old w/ Standard Accent, Suspect - 20-year-old.
- IVs:
- Brummie or standard accent
- Blue or white collar crime
- White or Black suspect
- Apart from IVs, rest of the Transcript was Identical across all groups.
- After listening to the tape, participants rated on a 7-point scale how guilty they thought the suspect was.
DIXON - Results
- Participants rated the conversation with the Brummie suspect as significantly more guilty than the standard accent.
- There was an interaction between the variables with the black, Brummie-accented, blue collar crime being rated significantly more guilty than the other conditions.
DIXON - Conclusion
- The study supports the idea that some accents sound guiltier than other accents.
- However Dixon et al. point out that in the real world juries are given far more information and context than the participants were given in this study.
EVALUATION - How to influence Juries
-
Physical Appearance
- Simply asking defendants to dress formally, wearing clothing that covers up tattoos and be neatly groomed is a simple application that could make a difference to Juries’ Verdicts.
-
Penrod and Cutler showed that Witness Confidence is a key factor in court.
- To ensure that a Witness is Confident, Lawyers could familiarise them with the court setting beforehand, explain the procedures on the day and do a practice questioning session with them.
- However, they shouldn’t coach witnesses into how to behave too precisely as this should be seen as unethical to justice.
EVALUATION - Order of Evidence
- When there is a lot of evidence to present, Witness Order: presenting the most important evidence first would be a good way to get the Jury’s attention.
-
Pennington and Hastie (1988) - Jurors were actually more likely to respond to evidence presented in Story Order: the order that it happened in the case.
- Using a mock jury, participants in the study tended to be more persuaded by Story Order than Witness Order. This could be because it allows jurors to more easily create a narrative in their minds.
Pennington and Hastie recommend Lawyers to present in Story Order.
EVALUATION - Expert Witnesses (CUTLET)
-
Cutlet et al. (1989) - used a Mock Trial of 538 students to participate in a trial involving a robbery.
- In this study, however, an Expert Witness was used – a Psychologist who taught the Jurors about Memory and how to spot Good and Bad Witnesses.
- In real cases both the Defence or Prosecution legal teams could draw upon Expert Witnesses to educate the jurors about eye witnesses.
