Does Insanity Have a Face? An Examination of Defendant Appearance and Juror Attitudes that Affect Juror Decisions in Insanity Defense Cases.
详细信息
- 作者：Kardis ; Emily Annaliese.
- 学历：Psy.D.
- 年：2014
- 毕业院校：Chicago School of Professional Psychology
- Department：Clinical Forensic Psychology
- ISBN：9781321059458
- CBH：3629222
- Country：USA
- 语种：English
- FileSize：2818161
- Pages：177
文摘
The purpose of this study was to examine how a defendant's physical appearance impacts jurors' judgments in insanity defense cases. Further,the study was conducted to gain a better understanding of how attitudes and misconceptions regarding the insanity defense affect jurors' decisions. Defendant appearance was manipulated utilizing the following categories: race (African-American and Caucasian),facial maturity (baby-faced and mature-faced),and hygiene (disheveled and non-disheveled). Participants (N ＝ 418) were randomly assigned to one of eight conditions,determined by the three independent variables. All participants viewed an image (computer generated) of a defendant while reading a case vignette,casted their vote (Guilty or Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity),and answered a series of questions about the insanity defense. It was hypothesized,first,that mature-faced defendants would receive more NGRI votes as well as a higher likelihood rating for finding the defendant NGRI than would baby-faced defendants. Second,it was predicted that Caucasian defendants would receive more NGRI votes and higher likelihood ratings than would African-American defendants. Lastly,it was hypothesized that there would be a significant difference in likelihood ratings and NGRI votes between disheveled and non-disheveled defendants. Results indicated that the defendant with a non-disheveled,baby-faced appearance received significantly higher NGRI ratings than did the defendant with a non-disheveled,mature-faced appearance. Additionally,subjects who had a negative view of the insanity defense (high IDA-R scores) were significantly more likely to cast a vote of Guilty.