PSYC1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 38: Authoritarian Personality, Social Desirability Bias, Hung Jury
2 Jul 2018
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5/06/2018 The Psychology of Juries
Describe the main functions and characteristics of juries
oMain function: apply the law to the evidence and render a verdict of guilt or innocence
(use the wisdom of 12; act as the community conscience; protect against out-of-date laws)
oJury nullification: juries may ignore the law and render a verdict based on other criteria
(may happen when juries think law is unfair)
oCharacteristics:
Impartibility: lack of bias on the part of jurors (ignore pre-existing biases, prejudices,
attitudes, pre-trial publicity)
Representativeness: representative of community ensured through random selection
from the community (but is affected by how original panel is selected; what % of panel
turn up; who manages to avoid being called; who is disqualified)
Describe the jury selection process
oCourt uses voter lists, phone directories to find people for jury – then randomly drawn
from list, confirmed at pretrial gathering
oChallenges of jury selection:
Peremptory challenges: removal of a limited number of prospective jurors without
specifying reasons (“I don’t think they will work in favour of my case”)
Challenge for cause: both parties also have an unlimited right to challenge with “cause”
(i.e. for a stated reason)
When the evidence is ambiguous, juror’s personalities and general attitudes have an
effect
Lawyers have suggested that women are sympathetic and extraordinarily conscientious
jurors; others suggest avoiding women as they are unpredictable and influenced by
their husbands – aka. Lawyers aren’t good judges of character! So, should they be able
to change the jury?
Critically evaluate scientific jury selection
oAttempts to draw correlations between demographics and trial-relevant attitudes
oConsultants conduct a survey in the jury population; if prospective juror fits an
unfavourable profile, use a peremptory challenge to exclude
oControversial process
Favour: picking jurors using science is more refined version than intuition – problem is
in the peremptory challenge
Oppose: problem with representativeness of jury. Tips the scales of justice toward the
wealthy
Describe and critically evaluate ways to study jury behaviour
1. Post-trial interviews
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