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1. E4a1How defendant
characteristics affect jury
decision-making

2. Procedure in court
 Listen to evidence and testimony presented by the defence (defending
the defendant) and the prosecution
 Jury decide on the verdict of guilty or not
 The system is not perfect and innocent people have been sent to prison.
 Psychologist try to find out why this is?

3. Can the jury make a mistake?
 A jury should based their decision on what they see and hear from the
evidence and the testimony.
 However jurors may be affected by other factors, how people look and
sound. Without realising it.

4. Defendant Characteristics
What is the supporting study
 How a defendant looks, acts and sounds can effect how they are viewed
by the jury.
 This sis stereotypical
 There is a higher proportion of ethnic minorities in prison (15%) compared
to (8%) of the population.
 Is this because ethic minorities commit more crimes? Or are there other
factors that we need to consider?

5. Psychologist research
 Does Race affect jury decision?
 If we have a stereotypical view of a black man as more likely to commit a
crime are we more likely to find them guilty?
 Could this explain the higher figures?
 Mock studies with white jurors have found them more likely to find Black
defendants guilty compared to white defendants
 Also found black defendants are given harsher sentences than a white
defendant who committed the same crime.

6. Skolnick and Shaw 1997
 Found that both the race of the jurors and the defendants are important
factors in the decision making factors.
 They Found
 Both Black and White Jurors were less likely to find black defendants guilty.
 This goes against other studies.
 Also
 Black jurors were more likely to find white defendants guilty compared to black
defendants.

7. Taylor and Butcher 2007
 Attractiveness
 Attractive people are less likely to commit a crime (What case states this.
 Conducted a mock jury study
 More attractive people were judged as less guilty of a crime and given lower
sentences than unattractive people.
 Attractive people could get away with murder!

8. Mahoney and Dixon 2002
 Accent
 Jury can be influenced by how someone speaks.
 Well spoken might find them not guilty of a robbery. Someone with a strong
regional accent the reverse might happen as we may see them as needing
more money.
 Conducted an experiment found Brumimes to be more likely to b found
guilty of armed robbery than cheque fraud compare to a defendant with
a posh accent.

9.  WE HAVE COMPLETED THE WHOLE COURSE
 We have learnt it
 We just need to remember it now.