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24 - Legal and Extralegal Factors that Affect Jurors’ Decisions

from Part III - Trial Phase Decision-Making

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2024

By
Kimberly Schweitzer ,
Kayla A. Burd  and
Narina Nuñez
Edited by
Monica K. Miller ,
Logan A. Yelderman ,
Matthew T. Huss  and
Jason A. Cantone
Monica K. Miller
Affiliation:
University of Nevada, Reno
Logan A. Yelderman
Affiliation:
Prairie View A & M University, Texas
Matthew T. Huss
Affiliation:
Creighton University, Omaha
Jason A. Cantone
Affiliation:
George Mason University, Virginia
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Summary

In the United States, jurors serve as the fact-finders for the civil and criminal justice systems and are tasked with making important decisions that impact society (e.g., verdicts and sentences in criminal cases and damages in civil cases). This chapter discusses current models and theories of juror decision-making to frame and provide a foundation for addressing how various types of legal evidence and nonlegal factors affect juror decision-making, including emotional evidence (e.g., victim impact statements and gruesome pictures and videos) and scientific evidence (e.g., DNA, shoe print, and fingerprint evidence). The chapter also examines how “nonevidentiary” extralegal factors, such as characteristics of the trial participants (e.g., age, sex, race, socioeconomic status, and other sociodemographics factors), are incorporated by jurors and influence their evaluation of evidence and decisions during trial. This chapter concludes with proposing various avenues for future research and a discussion of the policy implications of the work reviewed.

Keywords

decision-makingjurorsemotional evidenceforensic evidenceextralegal factors and decision-making
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Psychology and Legal Decision-Making , pp. 365 - 378
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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