Sociocultural and Personality Perspectives on Jury Behavior and Decision Making

• NCJ Number: 75580
• Author(s): J P Lipton
• Date Published: 1979
• Length: 292 pages
• Grant Number(s): 79-NI-AX-0014
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Publication Type: Thesis/Dissertation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: University of California, Riverside, California doctoral dissertation

Annotation

This study focuses on the psychology of jury behavior; results are discussed in terms of theoretical, methodological, and applied perspectives.

Abstract

An elaborate experimental procedure was undertaken to convince participants that they were members of a jury, deciding upon the fate of a defendant, rather than subjects in a psychological experiment. A total of 16 6-person juries were tested, yielding a total of 96 jurors. There were four jury types: predominantly male, predominantly female, predominantly Anglo, and predominantly Chicano. Each jury decided upon two cases, one involving an Anglo defendant and the other involving a Chicano defendant. A wide variety of demographic, attitudinal, and personality factors were assessed, including self-esteem, authoritarianism, attitude towards the law, need for social approval, locus of control, attitude towards capital punishment, political ideology, and social class. For each case, jurors completed a predeliberation questionnaire to indicate their decisions as to verdict, degree of guilt, and recommended penalty. Following deliberation, jurors complete another instrument which was identical to the questionnaire except for the addition of items concerning the rating of the defendant's intelligence, likability, attractiveness, and honesty. Several hypotheses were tested using the results. Findings indicated a number of significant effects for juror sex and ethnicity, for the ethnic and sex composition of the jury, and for the ethnicity of the defendant. For example, whether either an Anglo or a Chicano juror was in the ethnic minority within a jury had a marked effect on juridic decisions. Males on a predominantly female jury tended to be quite lenient. In contrast, the harshest and most severe judgments were made by female jurors on predominantly male juries. Compared to Chicano jurors, Anglo jurors attributed more guilt to the Chicano defendant. The regression analysis employed in the study provided insight into the potential value of personality, attitudinal, and sociocultural factors in predicting juridic decisions. Extensive figures, tables, references, and appendixes are included in the study. (Author abstract modified)