A new psychological study from the University of Leicester aims to investigate how accurate people’s perceptions about forensic science are, where these beliefs come from, and how this forensic awareness may impact on jury decision making.
It will assess whether the jury system in the UK is influenced by the type of forensic-related programming potential jurors are exposed to, or whether their knowledge and understanding of forensic science through news media, literature or magazines has an impact on their courtroom decisions.
The study will investigate how jurors interpret forensic evidence in court - and how this impacts on their decision making.
Lisa Smith, from the Forensic Section of the University of Leicester School of Psychology, said: “In recent years the forensic science techniques available to police have become increasingly sophisticated and in some cases difficult to understand within the courtroom.
“The increased attention given to forensic science in both the news and fictional media has also raised awareness of these techniques in the general public.
“The aim of this research is to understand how potential jurors perceive and understand various forensic science techniques, in order to determine how their attitudes and expectations may impact on their decision making in a courtroom setting.”
Ms Smith added that jurors are faced with the very difficult task of evaluating many different types of evidence when reaching a final decision - which will ultimately change the lives of the defendants and victims involved in a criminal case.
“As the complexity of forensic evidence increases with recent advances in technology, it is important to determine how well jurors understand the value of the evidence.
“Forensic science is featured quite heavily in television programming and news media coverage, and this raises the public interest in forensic techniques. An important aspect of jury decision making is a juror's prior beliefs and knowledge, and this study aims to investigate how potential jurors' perceptions of forensic science impacts on their ability to evaluate different types of evidence.
“This research will improve our understanding of how potential jurors use their prior beliefs about forensic science to inform their decision making when evaluating different types of forensic evidence. This can ultimately contribute to improvements in the way evidence is presented and explained to juries to ensure effective decisions are reached in the courtroom.”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080924085158.htm
6 comments:
I thought this article was very interesting. It addressed the relation between what people see on tv and is fake, and what actually happens in real life, and how a jury could be impacted by what they are seeing on tv. I thought that Kelly did a good job of both summarizing the article and incorporating quotes, which I thought added some depth to her summary. I think it was interesting that they admit that though the scientific lingo used by forensic scientists in the courtroom may be difficult for some to understand with shows like CSI it has helped jurors understand the basics, but how that effects their decisions is left unknown. I wish that there was more information about the outcome of the study, and perhaps if Kelly had summarized a bit at the bottom it would have been good for overall conclusion and clarification. I learned alot about how the media could potentially effect the juror's mind and thought it was a very interesting, well written and researched article.
I really enjoyed this article. I thought that this article was summarized well and gave a lot of detail about the topic being discussed. It's important that people are considering the difficulties that jurors might face understanding the complexity of a forensic case and that their knowledge of CSI can only get them so far. I learned that its vital to consider how a juror may interpret forensic evidence because it can alter the outcome of a case. Kelly did a great job of explaining the article but i wished there was an example of the scientific terminology that is unclear to jurors.
This article was very interesting. You said how magazines are an impact on Jurors.
This article was very intruiging. It is a great piece on the reality in cases and the jury. The inclusion of quotes was very good and helped to show the true impact that CSI has on people. I thought some more details and bit more summarization aimed at acheiving the true meaning of this article would be a great addition. Aside from that this article was one of the best I have seen.
I enjoyed reading this article and Kelly's summary and reaction to it. I often watched CSI even before taking a class on forensic science, and it definitely makes field of forensic science more well-known and familiar. Kelly did a great job summarizing the article so that it was understandable, yet in depth and her use of quotes really backed up the article. I had never thought about how TV shows, such as CSI, would affect jurors or people involved in civil cases. I learned that the jurors' prior understanding of forensic science due to these shows should be taken into consideration when the evidence is displayed in a courtroom. The only suggestion I would make is to include more specific examples.
I thought this was a good article. It concerned the affects of how TV can impact real life. I thought Kelly was good at summarizing and using quotes. I would have preferred there be more info about the results of the study but I did end up learning about the way that media coverage can impact a jury's verdict.
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