Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-xtvcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-17T13:36:46.215Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Jury Size and Verdict Consistency: “A Line has to be Drawn Somewhere”?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2024

Robert T. Roper
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This research tests the simulated impact of Supreme Court decisions which allow for smaller than twelve-member juries. It identifies variation in judicial output that results from competing operating structures of jury decision making. The research employed a quasi-experimental design to address important problems of simulation, such as structural and functional verisimilitude. The sample consisted of 110 juries composed of nearly 1000 jurors. The findings indicate that a jury's size affects its behavior. Larger juries hang more often than smaller ones do. The degree to which this avoids the committing of a Type I or Type II judicial error remains to be seen; nevertheless, the Court was wrong in assuming that there are no differences in the behavior of twelve- and six-member juries.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , Summer 1980 , pp. 977 - 995
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 The Law and Society Association

Footnotes

*

This research was funded by the Law Enforcement Assistance administration, U.S. Dept. of Justice. I wish to thank Bradley Canon and Dean Jaros for help in the project's development; and John Baker, Albert Melone, the Review's referees, and the editor for comments on previous drafts of this article. Additional data from this study is reported in “The Interactive Impact of a Jury's Operating Structure on the Accuracy of Evidence Recall,” Social Science Quarterly, forthcoming.

References

References

ASCH, Solomon E. (1952) Social Psychology. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BEISER, Edward and Rene, VARRIN (1975) “Six-Member Juries in The Federal Courts,” 58 Judicature 425.Google Scholar
BERMANT, Gordon, and Rob, COPPOCK (1973) “Outcomes of Six- and Twelve-Member Jury Trials: An Analysis of 128 Civil Cases in the State of Washington,” 48 Washington Law Review 593.Google Scholar
BERMANT, Gordon, McGUIRE, Mary, McKINLEY, William and Chris, SALO (1974) “The Logic of Simulation in Jury Research,” 1 Criminal Justice and Behavior 224.Google Scholar
BERMANT, Gordon, CHAPPELL, Duncan, CROCKETT, Geraldine, JACOUBOVITCH, M. Daniel, and McGUIRE, Mary (1975) “Juror Responses to Prerecorded Videotape Trial Presentations in California and Ohio,” 26 The Hastings Law Journal 975.Google Scholar
BERMANT, Gordon and M. Daniel, JACOUBOVITCH (1975) “Fish Out of Water: A Brief Overview of Social and Psychological Concerns About Videotaped Trials,” 26 The Hastings Law Journal 999.Google Scholar
BRAY, Robert (1976) “The Mock Trial: Problems and Prospects for Jury Research.” A paper presented in the symposium, “Innovations in Jury Research: Concepts, Methods, and Policy Implications,” at the 1976 Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
CAMPBELL, Donald T. and Julian C., STANLEY (1963) “Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Research on Teaching,” in Gage, N.L. (ed.), Handbook of Research on Teaching. Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
CRONIN, Philip M. (1958) “Six-Member Juries in District Courts,” 2 Boston Bar Journal 27.Google Scholar
DAVIS, James, KERR, Norbett, ATKIN, Robert, HOLT, Robert, and David, MEEK (1975) “The Decision Processes of 6- and 12-person Mock Juries Assigned Unanimous and Two-Thirds Majority Rules,” 32 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2.Google Scholar
DIAMOND, Shari S. (1974). “A Jury Experiment Reanalyzed,” 7 University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform 520.Google Scholar
FLYNN, Leo (1977) “Does Justice Fail When the Jury is Deadlocked?” 61 Judicature 129.Google Scholar
FORSTON, R. (1972) “Research in Jury Structure and Function.” Presented at the 1972 Annual Meeting of the Speech Communication Association, Chicago, Illinois.Google Scholar
GERBASI, Kathleen, Miron, ZUCKERMAN, and Harry, REIS (1977) “Justice Needs a New Blindfold: A Review of Mock Jury Research,” 84 Psychological Bulletin 323.Google Scholar
GROFMAN, Bernard (1979) “Mathematical Models of Jury Decison-Making: The State of the Art,” in Sales, Bruce (ed.), Perspective in Law and Psychology, Vol II: The Jury, Judicial, and Trial Processes. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
HANS, Valerie and Anthony, DOOB (1976) “Section 12 of the Canada Evidence Act and the Deliberation of Simulated Juries,” 18 The Criminal Law Quarterly 235.Google Scholar
HARE, A. Paul (1976) Handbook of Small Group Research (2nd ed.) New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
IZZETT, Richard and Walter, LEGINSKI (1974) “Group Discussion and the Influence of Defendant Characteristics in a Simulated Jury Setting,” 93 Journal of Social Psychology 271.Google Scholar
JAMES, Rita M. (1959) “Status and Competence of Jurors,” 64 The American Journal of Sociology 563.Google Scholar
JUHNKE, Ralph, VOUGHT, Challenger, PYSCZYNSKI, Thomas, DANE, Francis, LOSURE, Bruce, and Lawrence, WRIGHTSMAN (1979) “Effects of Presentation Made Upon Mock Juror's Reactions to a Trial,” 5 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 36.Google Scholar
KALVEN, Harry and Hans, ZEISEL (1966) The American Jury. Boston: Little Brown.Google Scholar
KESSLER, Joan B. (1973) “An Empirical Study of Six- and Twelve-Member Jury Decision-Making Processes,” 6 University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform 712.Google Scholar
KESSLER, Joan B. (1975) “The Social Psychology of Jury Deliberations,” in Simon, Rita (ed.), The Jury System in America: A Critical Overview. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
LEMPERT, Richard (1966) “Strategies of Research Design in the Legal Impact Study: The Control of Plausible Rival Hypotheses,” 1 Law and Society Review 111.Google Scholar
LEMPERT, Richard (1975) “Uncovering ‘Nondiscernible’ Differences: Empirical Research and the Jury-Size Cases,” 73 Michigan Law Review 644.Google Scholar
MARSTON, William (1924) “Studies in Testimony,” 15 Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science 1.Google Scholar
McGUIRE, Mary and Gordon, BERMANT (1977) “Individual and Group Decision in Response to a Mock Trial: A Methodological Note,” 7 Journal of Applied Social Psychology 220.Google Scholar
MILLER, Gerald and Norman, FONTES (1977) “The Effects of Videotaped Court Materials on Juror Responses.” A report prepared for the National Science Foundation, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
MILLS, Lawrence R. (1973) “Six-Member and Twelve-Member Juries: An Empirical Study of Trial Results,” 6 University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform 671.Google Scholar
MYERS, David and Martin, KAPLAN (1976) “Group Induced Polarization in Simulated Juries,” 2 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 63.Google Scholar
NOTE (1958) “Six-Member Juries Tried in Mass. District Court,” 42 Journal of the American Judicature Society 136.Google Scholar
PENROD, Steven and Reid, HASTIE (1979) “Models of Jury Decision Making: A Critical Review,” 86 Psychological Bulletin 462.Google Scholar
REED, John (1965) “Jury Deliberations, Voting, and Verdict Trends,” 45 The Southwestern Social Science Quarterly 361.Google Scholar
ROSENBLATT, Albert and Julia, ROSENBLATT (1973) “Six-Member Juries in Criminal Cases: Legal and Psychological Considerations,” 47 St John's Law Review 615.Google Scholar
SAKS, Michael (1977) Jury Verdicts: The Role of Group Size and Social Decision Rules. Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
SIMON, Rita J. and Linda, MAHAN (1971) “Quantifying Burdens of Proof: A View From the Bench, the Jury, and the Classroom,” 5 Law and Society Review 319.Google Scholar
SPERLICH, Peter W. (1980) “… And then there were six: the decline of the American Jury,” 63 Judicature 262.Google Scholar
STOEVER, William (1972) A Comparison of Six- and Twelve-Member Civil Juries in New Jersey Superior and County Courts. New York: The Institute of Judicial Administration, Inc.Google Scholar
STRODTBECK, Fred L. and Richard D., MANN (1956) “Sex Role Differentiation in Jury Deliberations,” 19 Sociometry 3.Google Scholar
TAMM, Edward A. (1962) “The Five-Man Civil Jury: A Proposed Constitutional Amendment,” 51 Georgetown Law Journal 120.Google Scholar
THOMAS, Edwin and Clinton, FINK (1963) “Effects of Group Size,” 60 Psychological Bulletin 371.Google Scholar
VIDMAR, Neil (1972) “Effects of Decision Alternatives on the Verdicts and Social Perceptions of Simulated Jurors,” 22 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 211.Google Scholar
VALENTI, Angelo C. and Leslie L., DOWNING (1975) “Differential Effects of Jury Size on Verdicts Following Deliberations as a Function of the Apparent Guilt of a Defendant,” 32 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 655.Google Scholar
WIEHL, Hon. Lloyd L. (1968) “The Six Man Jury,” 4 Gonzaga Law Review 35.Google Scholar
ZEISEL, Hans (1972) “The Waning of the American Jury,” 58 American Bar Association Journal 367.Google Scholar
ZEISEL, Hans (1973) “Reflections on Experimental Techniques in the Law,” 2 The Journal of Legal Studies 107.Google Scholar
ZEISEL, Hans and Shari, DIAMOND (1974) “‘Convincing Empirical Evidence’ on the Six-Member Jury,” 41 The University of Chicago Law Review 281.Google Scholar

Cases Cited

Ballew v. Georgia, 435 U.S. 223, 1978.Google Scholar
Capital Traction Co. v. Hof 174 U.S. 1, 1899.Google Scholar
Colgrove v. Battin, 413 U.S. 149, 1973.Google Scholar
Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145, 1968.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maxwell v. Dow, 176 U.S. 581, 1900.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinclair v. U.S., 279 U.S. 749, 1929.Google Scholar
Thompson v. Utah, 170 U.S. 343, 1898.Google Scholar
Williams v. Florida, 399 U.S. 78, 1970.CrossRefGoogle Scholar