The influence of race on jurors’ perceptions of lethal police use of force.

Abstract

Objective: Many highly publicized police use-of-force encounters have recently occurred in the United States. This project primarily explored whether officer, juror, or victim race affects verdicts in trials involving police use of force. Hypotheses: Because of recent conflicting research surrounding race and juror decision-making, we conducted an exploratory analysis on the interactive effects of juror, victim, and defendant race. We hypothesized that mock jurors with favorable perceptions of police legitimacy would be less likely to convict an officer charged with manslaughter. Method: Four hundred sixteen (243 women, 170 men, three another gender; 263 White, 50 Asian, 44 Black, 41 Latine, four Native American, 14 another race/ethnicity) jury-eligible community members read a trial transcript involving a police officer charged with manslaughter, in which we manipulated victim and defendant race (Black, White), then rendered a verdict and answered a questionnaire. Results: We found significant effects of police legitimacy and defendant race on verdicts. The main effect was qualified by an interaction between juror race/ethnicity and defendant race. Simple-slope analyses revealed no effect of defendant race for White mock jurors. In comparison, Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) mock jurors were significantly more likely to convict a White than a Black defendant. We also observed significant effects of police legitimacy, defendant race, and victim race on perceptions of the officer's use of force. Conclusions: Our analyses revealed that mock jurors were significantly more punitive when the defendant was White compared with Black, and they perceived the officer's use of force as significantly more excessive when the officer was White or the victim was Black. These effects appear to be driven primarily by BIPOC jurors. Mock jurors with more favorable perceptions of police legitimacy were significantly less likely to convict the officer and viewed his use of force as less excessive. Public Significance StatementOur study provides evidence that despite explicit legal instructions regarding impartiality, factors such as defendant and victim race may influence mock jurors when rendering verdicts and evaluating trial evidence. The observed effects of juror race/ethnicity underscore the importance of diverse jury pools. Furthermore, we observed that mock jurors' attitudes concerning police legitimacy predicted their verdict decisions and perceptions of the officer's use of force. Thus, attorneys may wish to consider assessing attitudes toward police during the voir dire process of trials involving police officers as defendants.

Counterfactuals in mainstream media: A pathway for blame attribution and policy endorsement in police lethal force incidents

“…Beyond victim race, it would also be important to examine officer race, as it may provide a different lens to explore racial bias. For example, Ewanation and Maeder (2023a) found that when participants encountered a White officer in a mock trial for lethal force, they were more likely to perceive the officers' force as excessive and were more punitive in their decisions. These results have been replicated in other mock juror research Pica, Thompson, et al, 2020), indicating the race of the officer is a factor that needs further exploration within the current context.…”

Racial justice in psycholegal research and forensic psychology practice: Current advances and a framework for future progress.

“…A complimentary theme is the public's views of the police and, especially their use of force in encounters with civilians. Articles by Perillo et al (2023) and Ewanation and Maeder (2023) show how judgments about the use of force depend on the race of the parties involved as well as the race of the observer. Perillo and colleagues examine judgments about force in an increasingly common, yet understudied, context: police officers in school settings.…”