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Bias in jury selection: justifying prohibited peremptory challenges
Author(s) -
Norton Michael I.,
Sommers Samuel R.,
Brauner Sara
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of behavioral decision making
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1099-0771
pISSN - 0894-3257
DOI - 10.1002/bdm.571
Subject(s) - jury selection , jury , selection (genetic algorithm) , supreme court , psychology , race (biology) , jury instructions , selection bias , law , social psychology , political science , sociology , computer science , artificial intelligence , gender studies , medicine , pathology
The United States Supreme Court has restricted attorneys from considering the gender and race of potential jurors in their use of peremptory challenges—the practice by which jurors may be removed from a jury without explanation or evidence of potential bias. We propose that forbidding peremptories based on social category information not only fails to decrease biased jury selection, but also encourages attorneys to search—successfully—for neutral justifications for their biased decisions. In Study 1, participants who acted as prosecutors in a jury selection paradigm eliminated female jurors more often than male jurors, but then justified these biased choices by citing gender‐neutral information. Troublingly, Study 2 showed that explicit instructions against the use of gender failed to eliminate selection bias, and in fact resulted in even more elaborate justifications. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.