A call to use psychology for anti-racist jury selection.

Abstract

Evidence-based jury selection is a critical need because of historical and ongoing racial biases that impede a just process and outcome. As norms about bias, how to measure it, and mitigating its effects have progressed over time, new tools to help carry out this work have become available. This article synergizes the latest relevant psychological literature with the combined wisdom and experience of an interdisciplinary group of experts in racism, law, psychology, mental health, and biomedical science to provide a framework to advance the jury selection process. We describe and provide examples of how jurors should be asked direct questions about their behaviors rather than simply their attitudes. Further, we suggest that racial justice allies should be identified as potential jurors because such individuals will be best able to approach their jury duty in an impartial, antiracist manner.

Abuse of power in the disciplinary actions of a state psychology licensing board: inequitable outcomes and early career psychologists

“…For example, one individual investigated by the Board expressed that in her area of practice, it was quite common to use exposure therapy, which might include taking their patients to the mall or to a restaurant as a part of their treatment process. However, because the investigator did not have knowledge of this empirically-validated treatment, they interpreted this well-supported therapeutic act as inappropriate ( Deacon, 2012 ; Faber et al, 2022a , b ). This process of misunderstandings and needing to educate evaluators on technical matters can cause unwarranted stress for a psychologist who must endure this line of questioning, and indeed this resulted in at least one report from an investigator that was inaccurate at the expense of the accused.…”

Power, Discrimination, and Privilege in Individuals and Institutions

“…4. Racism in juries (Levinson et al, 2022;Faber et al, 2022a) "I do not think that this paper makes a significant enough contribution to the literature to justify including it in this prestigious scientific journal. "…”

Addressing mass incarceration amid a pandemic: Psychology informing decarceration as a racial justice and public health response.

“…The APA resolution on dismantling racism also notes that the organization commits itself to “foster[ing] research and development related to the use of rigorous, diversity-science informed methods that facilitate measurement, analysis, and identification of racial and ethnic disparities through the criminal and juvenile justice system and support data-driven changes to laws, policies, and practice, and multicomponent interventions that will eliminate structural racism, dismantle institutional racism, and facilitate the democratic ideal of equal justice for all” (APA, 2021, p. 8). For instance, Faber et al (2022) discuss the importance of psychologists’ involvement in antiracist jury selection. Additionally, psychologists have been using the sequential intercept model—a framework to evaluate specific points in the criminal legal process where individuals to be diverted to alternate treatment and programming—to explore ways to decriminalize the behaviors of individuals with severe and persistent mental illness (Heilbrun et al, 2017; Munetz & Griffin, 2006).…”