Race, Ethnicity, and Culture in Jury Decision Making

Abstract

This article reviews a growing body of social science research indicating that race, ethnicity, and culture can influence the judgments and behaviors of juries. The first section addresses research on jury bias, which shows that jurors often make harsher judgments of defendants from other racial and ethnic groups and are more likely to give death sentences in cases involving Black or Latino defendants and White victims. However, these effects are moderated by several factors related to the trial parties, context, and crime. Further, juror bias often involves subtle or implicit psychological processes that can be difficult to recognize and correct. The second section discusses research conceptualizing jurors as agentic forces whose judgments and behaviors may reflect their racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. This work shows that jurors' backgrounds may influence their reactions to defendants, trial judgments, and deliberation behaviors. The final section offers recommendations for future research in these areas.

Reasonable Mistakes and Regulative Norms: Racial Bias in Defensive Harm

“…Interestingly, they found that these discrepancies disappeared if race was made a focal point in the case by adding that the defendant had been the victim of racial slurs. Their findings are representative of the overall findings of a series of studies on the effects of bias in jury proceedings; for an excellent summary see Hunt (, esp. pp.…”

The effects of body‐worn camera footage and eyewitness race on jurors' perceptions of police use of force

“…Years of research demonstrate that race influences jurors' perceptions and decisions in cases involving racial minority defendants and victims (for a review, see Hunt, ). White jurors assign more guilt and more punitive sentences to racial minority (Black, Latinx) defendants compared with White defendants (Devine & Caughlin, ; Sweeney & Haney, ; but see Mazzella & Feingold, ).…”

Factoring the Role of Eyewitness Evidence in the Courtroom

“…Prior studies and meta-analytic reviews suggest a small but "significant" influence of defendant race on jury verdicts generally (Devine & Caughlin 2014;Mitchell et al 2005). In death penalty cases, victim race often has a stronger influence, while in noncapital cases, the focus is on the defendant (Hunt 2005). Research also suggests that stereotyping can affect some jurors' decision making (Johnson et al 1995;Jones 1997;Mitchell et al 2005).…”

“…The crime type, along with accompanying system and estimator variables, may affect the accuracy of an eyewitness. Some studies suggest that seriousness of the crime matters, such as in death penalty cases (Hunt 2005). Accordingly, we included two crime types (sexual assault, burglary) in our designed study.…”