Implicit Jury Bias: Are Informational Interventions Effective?
Chapter 5, pp. 85-107, in Criminal Juries in the 21st Century: Contemporary Issues, Psychological Science, and the Law (Oxford Univ. Press, C. Najdowski & M. Stevenson eds., 2018)
Posted: 11 Jul 2019 Last revised: 12 Jul 2019
Date Written: September 1, 2018
Abstract
The purpose of this chapter is to consider whether educational methods are — or could be — an effective way of tackling the implicit jury biases that threaten the fairness of trials. First, the chapter introduces the key ingredients of implicit bias, focusing particularly on their consequences for juries. It then reviews the efforts that have been made to use educational interventions to address implicit jury bias, as well as others that have been proposed. These existing and proposed interventions include jury orientation, jury instructions, expert testimony, individuation, and race salience. The chapter concludes by reviewing some of the primary obstacles to these kinds of efforts.
Keywords: implicit bias, implicit jury bias, race salience, voir dire, IAT, implicit association test, criminal procedure, criminal juries
JEL Classification: K14, K41
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
