Juror Decision Making in Hate Crime Cases

Abstract

Relatively little empirical research has been conducted on hate crimes. An issue that has previously remained almost entirely unexplored is what factors are likely to influence jurors' guilt determinations in hate crime cases. This article describes a mockjuror study that was conducted with 190 participants. Participants were given a hate crime vignette in which the ethnicity of the victim and offender were varied. Contrary to the original hypotheses, it was found that at least with this particular vignette, the offender's and victim's ethnicity did not usually affect the juror decisions. Furthermore, participants' level of racism was not related to their decisions on the juror task. The implications of the results are discussed, and suggestions are made for future research in this area.

Deliberating about terrorism: Prejudice and jury verdicts in a mock terrorism trial

“…Verdicts may be influenced also by the personal characteristics of the defendant or victim (such as being an ‘outsider’ or ‘black sheep’ (Helgeson and Shaver, 1990; Taylor and Hosch, 2004); prior experiences of the juror (Dillehay and Nietzel, 1985); likely penalties (Schwartz et al, 2001; Thompson et al, 1984); particular offences (e.g. hate crimes, Gerstenfeld, 2003; incest and child abuse, Garcia and Griffitt, 1978).…”