Jury decision-making: the impact of engagement and perceived threat on verdict decisions

Sivasubramaniam, Diane; McGuinness, Mallory; Coulter, Darcy J.; Klettke, Bianca; Nolan, Mark; Schuller, Regina A.

doi:10.1080/13218719.2020.1793819

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…The pilot study did not gather demographic information, so unfortunately it is not possible to compare gender, age, ethnicity, or political affiliation between the samples. As discussed by Sivasubramaniam et al (2020), student samples have previously been found to provide verdicts that are more lenient (e.g., Berman & Cutler, 1996) or more punitive (e.g., Neuschatz et al, 2008) than community samples. In combination with the discrepancies found in the current study, this indicates potential problems with generalisability when students are used to replace community samples.…”

Section: Pilot Studymentioning

confidence: 98%

Intersectionality: Gender and Race in the Court

Roberts¹

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This study investigated the effects of defendant gender (man/woman) and race (Indigenous/White) on Canadian mock jurors' verdicts in a case of parent-perpetrated child neglect. The potential intensified negative consequences against Indigenous women, produced by the intersectionality of gender and race, were of particular interest.Four hundred and one participants read a mock trial transcript, provided verdicts on two charges, and rated the defendant on a variety of adjectives. Logistic regressions revealed mock jurors were not influenced by the defendant's gender or the interaction between the defendant's gender and race. Race had an unpredicted influence, with an Indigenous defendant receiving fewer guilty verdicts. The adjective ratings moderated the effect of gender on verdicts, but not race.Mock jurors were less likely to find a woman guilty when they held positive impressions of her.This study contributes to previous literature that suggests jurors' verdicts may be influenced by extralegal factors.

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Section: Pilot Studymentioning

confidence: 98%

Intersectionality: Gender and Race in the Court

Roberts¹

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“…Although a number of jury studies have manipulated consequentiality, no clear pattern of results has emerged (see Bornstein & McCabe, 2005). Some research indicates that real juries are less likely than mock juries to render convictions (Diamond & Zeisel, 1974), while other studies have found evidence to suggest the opposite (e.g., Wilson & Donnerstein, 1977;Sivasubramaniam et al, 2020). Further still, several studies have observed no significant effect of consequentiality (Kaplan & Krupa, 1986;Kerr et al, 1979;Suggs & Berman, 1979).…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of victim race on jurors’ perceptions of lethal use of force

Ewanation¹

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In recent years, a number of highly-publicized lethal police use of force (UoF) encounters have occurred in both Canada and the United States, sparking several social movements and causing public debate about officer accountability. The primary aim of this project is to increase our understanding of jurors' legal decision-making in trials involving police UoF by exploring what jurors discuss during deliberations in simulated trials and evaluating whether the race of the victim affects individual verdicts and deliberation content. Canadian jury eligible participants (N = 78) watched and listened to a fictional trial involving a police officer charged with manslaughter. The victim's race was manipulated to be either White or Indigenous. After rendering individual pre-deliberation verdicts, participants took part in a 60-minute deliberation session, then rendered individual post-deliberation verdicts. Study 1a investigated the relationship between victim race, jurors' perceived police legitimacy, and individual verdict decisions. Although victim race did not have a statistically significant effect on pre-deliberation verdicts, the odds of jurors rendering a guilty post-deliberation verdict was more than 16 times higher when the victim was White as opposed to Indigenous. Study 1b investigated how victim race and police legitimacy relate to the deliberation content of the juries. Analyses indicated that both of these variables play a significant role in jury deliberations. Specifically, jurors were significantly more likely to provide "anti-defendant" and "pro-prosecution" utterances when the victim was White, as compared to Indigenous. Additionally, jurors with negative perceptions of police were significantly more likely to utter "anti-defendant" statements. Overall, this study suggests that, contrary to the assumption of the Canadian legal system, victim race influences legal decision-making in trials involving officer UoF.

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