The study sought to establish how the race of the defendant and the type crime that the individual commits affects the decisions that jurors make (Gordon et al., 191). The research used 56 participants that focused on making the decisions on jail terms regarding both white and black hypothetical criminals that had committed blue-collar and white-collar offenses. The hypothesis of the study is: Do the race of the defendant and the type of crime affect juror decisions (Gordon et al., 192).
There were two independent variables in the study. According to the thesis, the investigation was on the impacts that the race of the defendant and the type of offense have in legal decision-making. Therefore, the two independent variables that cause and effect are race and type of crime (Gordon et al., 193).
The study had only one dependent variable. That is the variable that was taking an impact in the research. The study was establishing the effect of race and type of crime on the decision-making of jurors (Gordon et al., 194). Therefore, the dependent variable was juror decisions. The decision that the jurors would make during the study was to impose a jail term on each of the individual cases that they handled (Gordon et al., 194).
The findings of the survey indicate that race and type of crime had an impact on the decisions that the participants made on the hypothetical criminals. The jurors gave longer jail terms to blacks that had committed blue-collar crimes (burglary) than the ones they gave to the whites on the same offenses (Gordon et al., 196). Also, the jurors gave longer jail terms to whites that had committed white-collar crimes (embezzlement) than they did to the blacks on similar offenses. The study also found that people imposed harsher penalties for the criminals of their race than those of the other (Gordon et al., 196).
The research concludes that jurors make decisions based on the race and the type of crime that the defendant has committed (Gordon et al., 196). The study finds that the characteristics of the perceiver were also an affiliate variable to the whole process of decision-making (Gordon et al., 196). While the authors refrain from generalizing the conclusion on the entire courtroom context, they do point that the situation in the real world may also derive from a similar cognition process.
Works Cited
Gordon, Randall A., Thomas A. Bindrim, Michael L. McNicholas, and Teresa L. Walden. "Perceptions of Blue-collar and White-collar Crime: The Effect of Defendant Race on Simulated Juror Decisions." The Journal of Social Psychology 128.2 (1988): 191-197. Print.
