Black Jurors' Personality Trait Attribution to a Rape Case Defendant

Abstract

The present study examined the effect of racial dissimilarity on the evaluative attitude of black subjects. One hundred and eighty-six male and female subjects participated in a simulated jury experiment in which the race of the victim, the race of the defendant, and the amount of evidence against the defendant were varied. The subjects read transcripts of either an inter-racial or an intra-racial forcible rape case against the defendant and then evaluated the defendant on certain trait dimensions. The results indicated that the racial similarity of the defendant and/or the victim to the subject jurors influenced the level of negative traits attributed to the defendant. The results strongly indicated that prejudicial social evaluation of the outgroup is a two-sided phenomenon. The interaction effects observed in the study seemed to indicate that factors such as the context under which the evaluative behavior took place, sex affiliation, the victim's race and the level of evidence tended to influence trait attribution to a dissimilar other. These results were discussed in the context of prejudicial trait attribution to a dissimilar defendant and the possible effects of such attitude on jury decision-making.

Minority juridic decision making

“…In contrast to expectations, however, defendant race did not directly predict jurors' verdict decisions (absence of main effects) nor did defendant race emerge indirectly in the interaction with victim race, as has been shown to occur in studies where no main effect existed based on defendant ethnicity (Bagby & Rector, 1992). That is, interracial rape did not result in more frequent determination of guilt as was hypothesized which contrasts with White majority judgments and Ugwuegbu's (1976) examination of African American jurors' decisions. Further, the discriminatory bias based on victim race observed at the verdict stage was not repeated in jurors' sentencing decisions, as was hypothesized, and no other variables were shown to influence sentencing decisions.…”

“…The degree to which in-group bias exists in minority jurors in the US and Canada is little known despite their actual participation in juries. The only study known to these authors which examined the role of prejudice in minority group decision making is an early study conducted by Ugwuegbu (1976) who examined the judgments of African American mock jurors in a simulated rape trial. The results were found to be consistent with the bulk of reports testing White majority views in the simulation design: African American jurors offered a guilty verdict most frequently when the defendant was White and when the victim was African American.…”

Attributions for Blue‐Collar and White‐Collar Crime: The Effects of Subject and Defendant Race on Simulated Juror Decisions1

“…The pattern of black subjects providing more severe sentences and being the source of the significant 3-way interaction on the attribution due to race item was somewhat unexpected. Previous research has revealed relatively inconsistent findings regarding the effect of juror race, but some evidence does exist to suggest that jurors will be more tolerant of a criminal's behavior when the race of juror and defendant are different (Mitchell & Byme, 1973;Ugwuegbu, 1976) or when the race of the juror and the victim are the same (Miller & Hewitt, 1978;Ugwuegbu, 1979). However, a number of other studies have failed to reveal any differences between the judgments of black and white jurors (cf.…”

Evaluating sex discrimination claims: The mediating role of attributions.

“…From a legal perspective, jury decisions regarding the existence of sex discrimination should be based on evidential factors or legally relevant information such as admissible evidence and the appropriate application of discrimination laws (Hester & Smith, 1973). Fortunately, a vast majority of studies examining the evaluation of criminal cases has consistently found that jurors are significantly more likely to attribute negative characteristics to criminal defendants and to find them guilty when the evidence about their guilt is strong (Ugwuegbu, 1976(Ugwuegbu, , 1979Reskin & Visher, 1986;Wiener & Vodanovich, 1986). Despite an occasional high-profile exception to the rule, empirical research suggests that, generally, juries do an admirable job of weighing the strength of evidence in a case before rendering their decisions (Visher, 1987).…”