Deck 13: Judicial Processes

Question 1

In which system of justice (adopted in the UK and the US) can the judge be described as a passive and impartial figure?

A) An adversarial system of justice
B) An inquisitorial system of justice

Answer 1

An adversarial system of justice

Question 2

The tendency for physically attractive defendants to be acquitted and to receive more lenient punishment, regardless of their actual level of guilt has been described as:

Answer 2

the halo effect

Question 3

The confidence with which a witness makes a statement in court is related to their perceived accuracy by jurors, such that confident witnesses are perceived as being more accurate.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Perry et al. (1995) found that negatives, double negatives and what kind of questions posed the greatest problems for all age groups of witnesses?

Question 5

Jurors tend to find it easy to understand judicial instructions.

Question 6

Anchored narratives are unquestioned assumptions concerning people, behaviour and ideas that may be tied to stereotypes.

Question 7

Concepts from social psychology have been applied to help understand group decision-making by magistrates, judges and juries in a judicial context. Social impact theory is one example. Name one more.

Question 8

Informational social influence can be described as the need to conform to sources of information other than our own because we believe others' interpretations are more accurate.

Question 9

Sex, age, ethnicity and level of education have all been shown to impact on juror decision-making.

Question 10

Pennington and Hastie (1991) proposed which influential model of juror decision-making?

Question 11

Pennington and Hastie's (1991) influential model suggests that jurors use the information presented at trial to construct their own stories of the event in question to help them make sense of this information. These stories are organised into units called ________, which represent attempts to apply meaning and thus plausibility to a series of statements or ideas.