Justice needs a new blindfold: A review of mock jury research.
By Gerbasi, Kathleen C.; Zuckerman, Miron; Reis, Harry T.
Abstract
Reviews studies on factors that may
influence jurors' verdicts. These factors include characteristics of the victim
and defendant, judges' instructions regarding pretrial publicity and
inadmissible evidence, number and severity of decision alternatives, jurors'
conception of guilt, and size of the jury and its decision rule. Data have
indicated that many extra-evidential factors contribute to mock jurors'
verdicts. The applicability of these results is limited, however, by the many
methodological and sampling problems inherent in the studies. It is suggested
that efforts to develop methods of minimizing biases would be most successful
if undertaken conjointly by legal experts and social scientists.