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Guilty Verdicts (guilty + verdict)
Selected AbstractsDisplayed emotions and witness credibility: a comparison of judgements by individuals and mock juriesAPPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 9 2007Janne Dahl Mock juries of 5,7 jurors viewed one of three video-recorded versions of a rape victim's testimony, role-played by a professional actress. The statement was given in a free-recall manner with one of three kinds of emotions displayed, termed congruent, neutral and incongruent emotional expressions. The juries were requested to reach a decision on items in a short questionnaire, probing the perceived credibility of the witness and judgements of the probability of a guilty verdict. The jurors were then asked to complete the questionnaire a second time, individually and anonymously. A control group filled out the questionnaire individually without preceding jury deliberations. When participants judged credibility and guilt independently, without a preceding jury discussion, the displayed emotions strongly influenced the judgements. However, discussions in the context of the jury strongly attenuated the effect of displayed emotion, with judgements converging on the credibility of a neutral emotional expression as judged by independent participants, and the attenuating effect outlasted the jury-situation. The results are consistent with research within social psychology showing that social stereotypes and prejudices are often neutralised by group discussions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The importance of being earnest: displayed emotions and witness credibilityAPPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2003Geir Kaufmann Participants viewed one of six video-recorded versions of a rape victim's testimony, role-played by a professional actress in one of six versions: Two versions of the testimony, representing a strong and a less strong rape scenario, were given in a free-recall manner with one of three kinds of emotions displayed, termed congruent, neutral and incongruent emotional expressions. Credibility judgements were strongly influenced by the emotions displayed, but not by the content of the story. When video watching was compared to reading a transcript of the testimony, results indicated that perceived credibility was reduced when the witness displayed neutral or incongruent emotions. Story content and displayed emotion contributed equally to estimates of the probability of a guilty verdict. We conclude that perception of credibility is strongly influenced by social stereotypes regarding appropriate emotional expression. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The Influence of Identification Decision and DNA Evidence on Juror Decision Making,JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 9 2009Joanna D. Pozzulo This study examined the influence of identification decision type and DNA evidence on mock jurors' ratings of evidence reliability, witness credibility, and verdict decisions. Type of identification decision was found to influence jurors' perceptions of the reliability of eyewitnesses' descriptions of various details related to the crime. Specifically, positive identifications resulted in the highest reliability ratings. Type of DNA evidence presented was found to impact on ratings of expert witness reliability. Overall, inconsistent DNA evidence that was statistical in nature resulted in the lowest reliability ratings. DNA-consistent evidence led to more convictions than did DNA-inconsistent evidence. Furthermore, jurors rendered more guilty verdicts when witnesses made a non-identification or a positive identification, as compared to a foil identification. [source] Sexual Assault and Defendant/Victim Intoxication: Jurors' Perceptions of Guilt,JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2000ANNE-MARIE WALL The present research investigates how defendant and claimant intoxication operates in sexual-assault trials. Participants (N= 323) were provided with a description of a sexualassault trial in which the intoxication level (sober, moderate, extreme) of both parties was systematically varied. While the introduction of alcohol altered participants' perceptions of the case and of the parties involved, a complex interplay between the defendant's and complainant's level of intoxication was apparent. When the complainant was sober, harsher judgments were rendered when the defendant was intoxicated, particularly at the extreme level. In contrast, when the complainant was moderately intoxicated, more guilty verdicts occurred when the defendant was similarly inebriated. Finally, when the complainant was extremely intoxicated, the defendant's beverage consumption did not exert any discemible impact. Evaluations of both parties' abilities to self-regulate their behavior and for the female target to become sexually disinhibited were also influenced by the intoxication manipulation. [source] Effects of pre-trial publicity and jury deliberation on juror bias and source memory errorsAPPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2007Christine Ruva We examined the effects of exposure to pre-trial publicity (PTP) and jury deliberation on juror memory and decision making. Mock jurors either read news articles containing negative PTP or articles unrelated to the trial. They later viewed a videotaped murder trial, after which they either made collaborative group decisions about guilt or individual decisions. Finally, all participants independently attributed specific information as having been presented during the trial or in the news articles. Exposure to PTP significantly affected guilty verdicts, sentence length, perceptions of defendant credibility, and misattributions of PTP as having been presented as trial evidence. Jury deliberation had significant effects on jury verdicts, perceptions of defendant credibility, source memory for trial items, and confidence in source memory judgements, but did not affect sentences or critical source memory errors. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||