Chapter 12- Preparing for Trials

Authoritarianism

A set of beliefs and characteristics that includes submissiveness to authority, demands for obedience from subordinates, intolerance of minorities and other outgroups, and endorsement of the use of power and punishment to ensure conformity to conventional norms.

Behavioral confirmation processes

Influences in which people’s expectations cause them to act in ways that confirm those expectations.

Bench trial

A trial in which the outcome (verdict) is decided by a judge rather than a jury.

Black sheep effect

The tendency to be more punitive toward those members of one’s group who violate the norms of the group.

Casuistry

Fallacious reasoning in order to justify questionable behavoir.

Challenges for cause

Occurring during jury selection, such challenges can be made by an attorney seeking to excuse a potential

Change of venue

Moving a trial to another locality, usually because extensive pre-trial publicity has prevented the assembling of an unbiased journey.

Cognizable groups

Specific groups of persons, usually defined by demographic characteristics such as race or gender.

Evaluation apprehension

Concern about the ways that others evaluate us.

Generic prejudice

Prejudice arising from media coverage of issues not specifically related to a particular case but thematically relevant to the issues at hand.

Implicit biases

Unconscious beliefs that influence how people interpret and judge thoughts and actions.

Implicit personality theory

A person’s preconceptions about how certain attributes are related to one another and behavior.

Jury sentiments

Beliefs, opinions, and views of jurors that are unrelated to the evidence and law in a trial.

Need for Cognition

The inclination to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive work.

Peremptory challenges

Opportunities available to each attorney during jury selection to exclude potential jurors without having to give any reason. Their number, determined by the judge, varies from one jurisdiction to another.

Scientific jury selection

A process used by social scientists when acting as jury selection consultants. These consultants use empirically based procedures such as focus groups, shadow juries, systematic ratings of prospective jurors, and surveys of the community.

Selection effects

A bias that occurs when random assignment is not achieved in a research study and results can be attributed to the selection of respondents.

Similarity-leniency hypothesis

The hypothesis that fact finders treat those similar to themselves more leniently than they treat those they perceive as different from themselves.

Social desirability effect

People’s wishes to present themselves in a socially appropriate and favorable way and the influence of such wishes on their behavior.

Social judgements

Judgements incorporating information about social categories, such as race and gender.

Source monitoring

The ability to accurately identify the source of one’s memory.

Specific pretrial publicity

Media coverage concerning the details of one specific case prior to trial.

venire

A panel of prospective jurors drawn from a large list.

voir dire

The process by which the judge and/or attorneys ask potential jurors questions and attempt to uncover any biases.