Scientific juror selection: Sex as a moderator of demographic and personality predictors of impaneled felony juror behavior.

Abstract

Contingencies between 23 demographic/personality variables and jury verdict, juror predeliberational verdict, tendency to change his or her verdict, and self-perceived participation and influence were examined by step-wise multiple regression for 319 felony jurors. Conviction-prone male Ss were more interested in having families, had more children, and had lower incomes. They evidenced higher authoritarianism and socialization but lower scores on the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Conviction-prone female Ss had higher scores on the Just World Scale, evidenced legal authoritarianism, and were more empathic and less anomic. In this venue, S's foreign ancestry was more remote. In addition, predictors were identified for the S's tendency to change verdicts and to perceive himself or herself as participating in and influencing the jury's deliberation. The practical utility of scientific juror selection in actual trials is discussed. (39 ref)

The impact of death qualification, belief in a just world, legal authoritarianism, and locus of control on venirepersons' evaluations of aggravating and mitigating circumstances in capital trials

“…When an unjust event occurs, there are two ways in which people with a high belief in a just world can restore this aforementioned belief: (1) attribute blame to the victim or (2) alleviate the victim's suffering. Previous research has found that the belief in a just world is correlated with juror decisions in criminal and civil trials (Foley & Pigott, 2000;Furnam, 2003;Hafer, 2000;Martin & Cohn, 2004;Moran & Comfort, 1982;Weir & Wrightsman, 1990). However, the relationship between belief in a just world and verdicts does not appear to be particularly clear-cut.…”

Examining the “CSI-effect” in the cases of circumstantial evidence and eyewitness testimony: Multivariate and path analyses

“…Previous studies produced somewhat different findings in terms of the effect size that jurors' demographic characteristics have on their verdicts (Diamond, Saks, & Landsman, 1998;Hastie, Penrod, & Pennington, 1983;Mills & Bohannon, 1980;Moran & Comfort, 1982;Wissler, Hart, & Saks, 1999). Some studies reported a relatively minor influence of demographic characteristics on verdicts.…”

“…On the other hand, other studies reported a relatively larger proportion of variance explained by such demographic variables. Mills and Bohannon (1980) and Moran and Comfort (1982) reported that juror's demographic characteristics have significant relationship with their verdicts on several criminal cases and that more than 10 percent of variance in verdicts can be explained.…”

The ecological validity of jury simulations: Is the jury still out?

“…Studies of actual jurors in trials for a variety of felonies have shown that jurors' sex also interacts with a number of personality measures (Mills & Bohannon, 1980;Moran & Comfort, 1982). For example, Mills & Bohannon (1980) found that socialization scores were positively correlated with guilty verdicts for male jurors, but negatively for female jurors; empathetic male jurors were more likely to acquit, but not empathetic female jurors; and autonomous jurors were more likely to acquit, regardless of sex.…”