Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-xxrs7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-19T08:17:45.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

12 - Why do jury research?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2010

Reid Hastie
Affiliation:
University of Colorado, Boulder
Get access

Summary

I want to focus my remarks on the question, “Why do people conduct jury studies?” After all, as Kadane (this book) has noted, jury decisions affect only a small fraction – far less than 10% – of the cases that enter the criminal or civil justice systems. There are arguably four or five other decision points in the criminal justice system and several in the civil justice system that are more important in terms of processing cases and affecting the lives of individual citizens.

To improve the law

First, people conduct studies of juror and jury decisions to influence the law and to improve jury performance. People with this goal want their social science to be relevant to their lives by offering ways to make the world a better place. Studies that reflect this urge embody the belief that social science research is most worthwhile when it tells us directly something about the solution to a real-world problem or elucidates an issue of popular concern. For example, when the U.S. Supreme Court in Williams v. Florida (1970) appeared to rely on four seriously flawed empirical studies for the proposition that six-member juries were constitutionally permissible, social scientists – chiefly psychologists – responded with a flood of research on small groups and juries.

Type
Chapter
Information
Inside the Juror
The Psychology of Juror Decision Making
, pp. 242 - 254
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1993

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×