The Effect of Defendant Gender and Crime Orientation on Juror Decision-Making

It is important that jurors make their decisions based on the evidence presented in court, especially given the seriousness of the consequences for the defendant, victim, and society. Unfortunately research has consistently highlighted that factors other than the evidence often influence jurors’ decisions. The current study examined the way in which gender stereotypes influence juror decision-making. Gender-related stereotypes may apply to both the defendant and the crime, and the current study aimed to examine the effects of a match (or mismatch) between these two entities. Participants were shown an audio-visual presentation of a mock court case, in which both the gender of the defendant (male or female) and the crime orientation (male – kidnapping a child from primary school, female – kidnapping a baby from a maternity ward) were manipulated. These manipulations were based on pilot work. It was predicted that there would be more convictions and the defendant would be more likely to be perceived as guilty when the gender of the defendant and crime orientation matched. The results failed to support this hypothesis – there was no interaction between defendant gender and crime orientation on likelihood of guilt. Further, defendant gender did not affect likelihood of guilt, perceived prosecution convincingness, perceived defence convincingness, case evaluation of the prosecution, case evaluation of the defence, recognition of facts about the defendant, recognition of facts about the case, or decision speed. Crime orientation was found to affect perceived defence convincingness, evaluation of the prosecution and defence case, and decision speed. The current study could not determine what variable or mechanism caused these differences. A possible explanation could be the concept of mad vs. bad crimes, where certain crimes are seen as being committed for deviant reasons, and therefore the defendant is seen a “bad” person and ought to be convicted. Other crimes are seen as being committed for psychological reasons, and therefore the defendant is seen as a “mad” person who ought not to be held responsible for their actions, and thus not be convicted