FPSY3900: Jury Decision-Making Influences (Definitions)

Lecture 4

Juror Biases

• can influence juror verdicts

• and unfair decision-making by jurors can result in injustice

Evidentiary

official case evidence that was introduced in court and used by the jury

• has the strongest impact

Extra Evidentiary

evidence that was not introduced in the case

• heard outside the trial

• mostly used at the end to reach the final verdict

• not officially used in court, maybe heard from outside sources

Pre-trial Bias

Pre-existing biases prior to trial

• Can stem from pre-evidence presentation (e.g., publicity)

  • problematic for high profile cases

  • more frequent in modern society

• biases resulted from the case that popular within the community

  • related to the case at hand

• not inherent biases

• as you experience information along the case itself

• it can bring disadvantages for those involved in the case

Cognitive BIas

Heuristics and associated biases can lead to errors in judgements

Bias from External Legal Actors

• Expert testimony can influence juror perceptions of evidence strength

• Expert witnesses may not be impartial decision-makers themselves

  • unlikely to be rational

• bias during the trial

• expert witness are brought into explain things better to the jury

  • often brought into explain evidence

• problem: authority effect

  • may put more weight onto what they were saying and apply it to their decision

• Snowball effect

  • bringing in their bias to influence the jurors

  • leaking out during trial testimonies

Implicit Bias

• Implicit attitudes

• Implicit stereotypes

Hate Crimes

Biases can influence juror perceptions of victim blame

Intimate Partner Violence

Biases in domestic cases can shape how jurors perceive evidence and testimony

Sexual Offences

Stereotypes facilitate the criminalization of LGBTQ+ people for various sexual offences

Voire Dire

Opportunity to identify existing juror biases

Validity of considering orientation/identity

Identification with individuals in the case

Evidence Type

some have larger impacts than others

Jury Orientation

• Using video orientations to target biases

  • doesn’t include anything specific

• Can include an invitation to take an IAT

• Focus on the bias most related to the trial

Jury Selection

• Voir Dire = Opportunity to identify biases

• Attorneys may struggle with identifying implicit biases

• Building salience

  • want to bring to light of LGBTQ+ and inform jurors so that they’re aware

• IAT

• some people try to hide them

Jury Instruction

• Conventional instructions do little to combat bias

• Could include more information about implicit bias

  • clear and detail

Expert Testimony

• Help jurors understand the impact of implicit bias

• Better understanding of implicit bias in the case

• Better understanding of their own implicit biases

  • how to become aware

  • how to respond to them and let them impact decision making

Hesitation

Possibility of making the issue worse

• fear that there will be the opposite effect

• may lose confidence in their neutrality

• ignore the fact that their implicit biases are actually influencing them

Lack of Understanding

Even criminal justice professionals are not fully informed

• who is training the trainers about implicit biases?

Viral Bias

is a result of the viralness and publicity of the case/trial

Pre-decisional Distortion

early preference leading to a verdict

• brain might take this as a cognitive bias

• might distort anything after the fact; to fit to what is already in your head

Implicit Attitudes

evaluations, negative or positive of a particular social group

• how we evaluate other groups we see in society

Implicit Stereotypes

beliefs that we have on groups

Explicit Homphobes

they know and show it

• Hard Question: hard or pointed questions

  • feelings towards LGBTQ+ groups and controversial topics

  • don’t want to ask questions that are super specific

• Soft Questions: less controversial

  • Would you feel comfortable if a gay couple moved next to you?

Closet Homophobes

aware of these biases but will try to hide it in order to fit in with the group

• Proxy Questions

  • tries to get to the topic indirectly

  • lifestyle, attitudes

  • Do you have any friends who are gay?

Implicit Homophobes

believe in LGBTQ+ community, but they don’t know they actually have biases

Authority Effect

may put more weight onto what they were saying & apply it to their decision

Hard Questions

hard or pointed questions

Proxy Questions

tries to get to the topic indirectly

• lifestyle

• attitudes