Correlation between Defendant’s Gender, Crime Type and Juror decisions
Research provides evidence that jurors guilty verdict may be affected by gender stereotypes used to categorize individuals, defendant gender and other physical attributes of those on trial. Biases are also prevalent in jury decision making in relation with gender and the type of crime committed (Bindrim, Gordon, McNicholas, & Walden, 1988). Jurors play an important role in criminal cases, it is imperative to understand the impact of gender stereotypes and type of crime committed on the end verdict.
This study was designed to analyse defendants based on their gender, in a bid to determine whether jurors were more inclined to make stereotypes based on gender in relation to the type of crime committed. It was conducted in a hypothetical scenario of four variations, to find out if there was a correlation between defendant gender, crime type and guilt likelihood. Two principle crimes were selected for the study, assault a male oriented crime and shop lifting a female oriented crime. Stereotypic tendencies generally associate assault to males and shop lifting to females.
Many researchers have claimed that there is a clear linkage between defendant gender and guilt likelihood. (McCoy & Gray, 2007) noted that such occurrences could be traced to the manner in which society perceives and treats members from both gender backgrounds. (Gordon et al., 1988) released a report, which tend to insinuate that jurors are normally influenced by the fact that gender is intertwined with various attributes responsible for likelihood of engaging in different criminal behaviours. Because gender is closely linked with characteristics correlated with criminal behaviours, they engage in...
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The research appears to be inconclusive because a workable strategy for linking gender differences to jurors’ decision has not been found. Thus, in future there is need to expand research in the area so that more information can be acquired including elements of decision-making that are mostly affected.
Gender related stereotypes have to be understood to enable jurors make ethical decisions, which are void of undue discrimination. Education programs of members of legal fraternity should be integrated with psychological topics concerning impact of defendants’ gender background on their decisions. In that respect, it would possibly be stress-free for jurors to come up with workable strategies of arriving at non-discriminatory verdicts. Laws and policies need to be expanded to capture possibility of injustices owing to gender background of an individual.
“No matter where you run into it, prejudice obscures the trues” (page 66). Prejudice can be a dangerous thing, especially when it comes to adjusting somebody’s life. At that time in America a jury consists of twelve men can determine the life or death of one person by giving a unanimous verdict. A typical reflection of this reality is an influential drama “Twelve Anger Men”. Reginald Rose wrote this drama inspired by his experience of being a juror on a manslaughter case to reveal a common social phenomenon of prejudice. To stress the main idea that, Rose presents the key points that biased individuals are less rational or blinding themselves with an unfair judgement about one’s guilt. Moreover, she conveys the facts that stereotype produces an effect on one’s statement. Furthermore, prejudice constantly affect other jurors’ opinion, intentionally or unintentionally. With Rose’s vivid description and clear contrast between each juror, he emphasizes the existence of prejudice and further to spread an idea that prejudice influence the outcome of the trial.
... of the juror’s and their sentencing or decision making in our study but further research could be carried out solely into how political attitude could also influence the jury-decision making.
The rate of women’s conviction is on the rise (Van Wormer, Bartollas). The increase of incarceration is outdoing the conviction of the men (Van Wormer, Bartollas). Female defendants found guilty of felonies in State courts has more than doubled the proportion of male offenders since 1990 (Greenfeld, Snell). Male offenders are estimated to commit about one violent offense for every nine males; the estimation is six times that of women (Greenfeld, Snell). Women are held accountable for about 2.1 violent offenses (Greenfeld, Snell).
When it comes to gender and crime most theories have typically focused on males and how they have influence crime rates, however in this modern day and age it is imperative to discuss and debate why gender is one of the strongest and most consistent predictors of crime. We would like to use Agnew’s theory and take it one step further to hypothesis why men (who were at least born male and identify as male) commit significantly more crime or why women (who were at least born female and identify as female) commit significantly less.
Crew, B. Keith. “Sex differences in criminal sentencing: Chivalry or patriarchy?” Justice Quarterly (Mar. 1991): n. pag. Print.
Jurors opinions can be influenced by an emotional testimony. Deborah W. Denno’s article Neuroscience, Cognitive Psychology, and the Criminal Justice System is the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law’s publication of a panel at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Law Schools. The panel had three goals: “examine the interrelationship between neuroscience and substantive criminal law; to incorporate criminal procedure more directly into the examination in a way that past investigations have not done; and to scrutinize cognitive bias in decision-making,” (Denno
They claim that legal factors play a large role in sentencing male and female defendants and studies such as the ones mentioned do not take these factors into consideration. It is true that legal factors such as criminal history and offense severity do play an important role in sentencing decisions of males and females. However, more recent studies such as the one conducted by Doerner and Demuth do take these legal factors into consideration. Even after controlling for variables such as criminal history and offense severity, they still find unexplained differences in sentencing between genders.
American Bar Association. National Bar Association (2001). Justice by gender: The lack of appropriate prevention, diversion and treatment alternatives for girls in the justice system: a report. Retrieved from The Associations website: http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/publishing/criminal_justice_section_newsletter/crimjust_juvjus_justicebygenderweb.authcheckdam.pdf
The jury system is essentially a descendant of Great Britain, the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians. Colonialism played a significant role in the development of the jury system globally. However, despite colonial influence, judicial systems across the world have taken their own way. As a result, the jury system has developed and changed to suit the needs and social conscience of different countries. Across the world, juries examine and decide the facts in a jury trial, the accuracy of the testimony, the guilt or innocence of criminal defendants, and liabilities in a civil litigation. Today, many countries such as Britain, United States, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Australia, France, German, India, and so on practice jury trials. These countries will be the issue of discussion in this paper.
Otto, A. L., Penrod, S. D., & Dexter, H. R. (1994). The Biasing Impact Of Pretrial Publicity On Juror Judgments. Law and Human Behavior, 18(4), 453-469.
Twelve Angry Men brings up a few issues the criminal justice system has. The jury selection is where issue number one arises. “A jury of one’s peer’s acts as an important check in cases where a defendant fears that the local justice system may have a prejudice against him, or in corruption cases in which the judiciary itself may be implicated” (Ryan). Deciding one 's future or even fate, in this case, is no easy task, as depicted by the 8th juror.
Guilty or not guilty? This the key question during the murder trial of a young man accused of fatally stabbing his father. The play 12 Angry Men, by Reginald Rose, introduces to the audience twelve members of a jury made up of contrasting men from various backgrounds. One of the most critical elements of the play is how the personalities and experiences of these men influence their initial majority vote of guilty. Three of the most influential members include juror #3, juror #10, and juror #11. Their past experiences and personal bias determine their thoughts and opinions on the case. Therefore, how a person feels inside is reflected in his/her thoughts, opinions, and behavior.
Before the jury stands the defendant. There is overwhelming evidence in the favor of the prosecution. The verdict comes back from the jury, not guilty. Why? The defendant is a woman. In our era of equal rights and civil liberties women have made great strides in their advancement and role in society, yet it seems that gender segregates when it comes to crime. There have been countless cases where women and men have been tried for the same crime, yet when it comes to verdict and sentencing, the results don’t necessarily match. If one commits a crime one should be punished accordingly regardless of gender. In our society we seem to have two separate rules for our criminals, one for men and one for women. The key issue is are men and women treated equally by the criminal justice system. Another issue in gender biased sentencing is in its is its severity. Are women sentenced heavier for certain crimes then men.
Unfortunately crime and murder is an issue in all areas of the country. Trials take place every day from a basic traffic offense to capital murder and the offender’s consequences depend on the jury. The jury consist of ordinary people that live an ordinary life. When faced with these trials, the decision making process is not easy. Some cases may hit home for many of the jurors so when deciding one’s fate does not make the process easy. The court case of Lizzie Borden is a story of a young girl who took an axe to her mother then to her father, the evidence led straight to her and she was later found not guilty by a stunned jury.
Deviancy and criminality is present within any society (Walsh, 2011). Depending on the crime itself, society then equates a certain punishment that is deserving of the act. The media is frequently portraying certain individuals and groups in a way that define them and often distinguishes them from another group (Walsh, 2011). In terms of contemporary crime, the various social constructs have been dissected by social scientists in order to analyse how society perceives crime and perceives criminals. Three core identifying factors, including class, gender, and race illustrate an often differing statistical representation when compared and contrasted with each other.