NCJ Number
74725
Date Published
1979
Length
10 pages
Annotation
The mechanics which take place during jury deliberation, including judgment formation, initial impressions and communications among jury members, are identified and discussed.
Abstract
Several factors are included in judgment formation by a juror during a trial, including evaluating each piece of information received with respect to the judgment in question, weighing each piece of information according to its validity for the particular judgment and according to its reliability, and integrating the weighed scale values into a single judgment of guilt appearance. The more information which jurors include in their judgment or the greater the weight which they give to this information, the less impact initial impressions, such as a prejudgment bias resulting from pretrial publicity, court room conditions, and personal dispositions, two types of communications take place. Information sharing, one form of communication, is important because different jurors remember and process different pieces of information. The second form of communication, normative pressure, consists of attempts by individual jurors to change each others' judgments. Research has shown that jurors who initially agree on the value of evidence tend to make more extreme judgments than do jurors who initially value infomation differently. Shifts in judgment are larger when jurors share different information with each other than when they repeat facts which their fellow jurors also cite. Although variations in normative pressure may produce change in public judgments, they do not change private judgment. A total of 6 references are included. (ERIC abstract modified)