Trust in the Jury System as a Predictor of Juror/Jury Decisions

Authors

Kimberly S. Dellapaolera, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Bailey A. Barnes, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
Brian H. Bornstein, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

4-2018

Document Type

Poster

Citation

UCARE Poster Presentation, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Spring 2018.

Comments

Copyright (c) 2018 Kimberly S. Dellapaolera , Bailey A. Barnes , & Brian H. Bornstein

Abstract

To determine whether jurors’ attitudes are correlated with their verdicts and judgments at trial, the present experiments examined the relationship between individuals’ trust in the jury system, other legal attitudes, and their verdict judgments, at both the individual (juror) and group (jury) level. We used a binary logistic regression model to examine the factors—jury instructions and individual difference measures—that contribute to a juror’s verdict. The results indicate that jurors with higher PJAQ and JUST scores had a higher likelihood of voting guilty on a homicide trial involving a mercy killing. It was also found that the majority of juries in the second study took a verdict-based approach, and jurors with less trust in the jury system participated more in deliberation than high trust jurors.