Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Strength of Evidence, Extraevidentiary Influence, and the Liberation Hypothesis: Data from the Field

Strength of Evidence, Extraevidentiary Influence, and the Liberation Hypothesis: Data from the Field To examine relationships between strength of evidence (SOE) and extraevidentiary variables in the context of Kalven and Zeisel’s (The American Jury, 1966) liberation hypothesis, post-trial questionnaire data were collected from judges, attorneys, and jurors associated with 179 criminal jury trials. SOE ratings were strongly correlated with jury verdicts on the three most serious charges against the defendant, and several extraevidentiary variables (i.e., pretrial publicity, trial complexity, charge severity, and foreperson demographics) were moderately correlated with verdicts. Extraevidentiary-verdict relationships remained significant when SOE was controlled, although extraevidentiary variables yielded only modest improvement in classification accuracy beyond SOE. In partial support of the liberation hypothesis, several case-related extraevidentiary variables were significantly related to jury verdicts only when the prosecution’s evidence was rated as moderately strong. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Law and Human Behavior Springer Journals

Strength of Evidence, Extraevidentiary Influence, and the Liberation Hypothesis: Data from the Field

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer-journals/strength-of-evidence-extraevidentiary-influence-and-the-liberation-GG51RzcqyL

References (42)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 by American Psychology-Law Society/Division 41 of the American Psychological Association
Subject
Psychology; Community and Environmental Psychology; Personality and Social Psychology; Criminology & Criminal Justice; Law and Psychology
ISSN
0147-7307
eISSN
1573-661X
DOI
10.1007/s10979-008-9144-x
pmid
18546064
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

To examine relationships between strength of evidence (SOE) and extraevidentiary variables in the context of Kalven and Zeisel’s (The American Jury, 1966) liberation hypothesis, post-trial questionnaire data were collected from judges, attorneys, and jurors associated with 179 criminal jury trials. SOE ratings were strongly correlated with jury verdicts on the three most serious charges against the defendant, and several extraevidentiary variables (i.e., pretrial publicity, trial complexity, charge severity, and foreperson demographics) were moderately correlated with verdicts. Extraevidentiary-verdict relationships remained significant when SOE was controlled, although extraevidentiary variables yielded only modest improvement in classification accuracy beyond SOE. In partial support of the liberation hypothesis, several case-related extraevidentiary variables were significantly related to jury verdicts only when the prosecution’s evidence was rated as moderately strong.

Journal

Law and Human BehaviorSpringer Journals

Published: Jun 11, 2008

There are no references for this article.