Understanding Juror Perceptions of Forensic Evidence: Investigating the Impact of Case Context on Perceptions of Forensic Evidence Strength

Lisa L. Smith · Ray Bull · Robyn E. Holliday

45 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Forensic Sciences

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Jury Decision Making Processes Legal processes and jurisprudence Deception detection and forensic psychology

Abstract

The most widely accepted model of juror decision making acknowledges the importance of both the case-specific information presented in the courtroom, as well as the prior general knowledge and beliefs held by each juror. The studies presented in this paper investigated whether mock jurors could differentiate between evidence of varying strengths in the absence of case information and then followed on to determine the influence that case context (and therefore the story model) has on judgments made about the strength of forensic DNA evidence. The results illustrated that mock jurors correctly identified various strengths of evidence when it was not presented with case information; however, the perceived strength of evidence was significantly inflated when presented in the context of a criminal case, particularly when the evidence was of a weak or ambiguous standard. These findings are discussed in relation to the story model, and the potential implications for real juries.

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References

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2015Interviewing suspects: examining the association between skills, questioning, evidence disclosure, and interview outcomes 2019Beliefs about error rates and human judgment in forensic science 2014The communication of forensic science in the criminal justice system: A review of theory and proposed directions for research 2011Identifying and measuring juror pre-trial bias for forensic evidence: development and validation of the Forensic Evidence Evaluation Bias Scale 2013The psychology of interpreting expert evaluative opinions

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