University of Michigan 412 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1399 September 3, 1998 (6)
Contact: Diane Swanbrow, (734) 647-4416, [email protected]
Race in the courtroom: U-M researchers cross-examine its role among Black and white jurors and defendants.
ANN ARBOR---Are jurors influenced by the race of defendants? According to a University of Michigan study, the answer is yes. But the juror's race, as well as the defendant's, affects courtroom decisions, with different types of criminal trials affecting Black and white jurors in different ways.
The study was presented here earlier this year at the annual meeting of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.
For the study, one of several they've conducted, researchers Samuel R. Sommers, a graduate student in psychology, and Phoebe C. Ellsworth, U-M professor of law and of psychology, recruited 211 adults to serve as mock jurors in a case of barroom assault by a man against his girlfriend. About three-quarters of those recruited were white and about one-quarter were Black. In all versions of the case, the race of the man and his girlfriend were different. White and Black mock jurors were equally likely to receive versions featuring a white as a Black defendant.
In addition, half the mock jurors of each race received versions that gave race an explicit role in the assault. Before the defendant slapped his girlfriend, one version said that he yelled, "You know better than to talk that way about a white (or a Black) man in front of his friends."
The other version said that the defendant yelled, "You know better than to talk that way about a man in front of his friends."
The researchers asked the mock jurors to rate how guilty the defendant was and how severe they believed his punishment should be.
When the racial salience of the crime was emphasized, white mock jurors were not influenced by the race of the defendant, they found, while Blacks were likely to demonstrate same-race leniency.
Sentencing recommendations showed a similar trend: white mock jurors were not influenced by the race of the defendant while Black mock jurors recommended longer sentences for white defendants.
When race was not identified as salient to the crime, white mock jurors gave Black defendants significantly higher guilt ratings, while Black mock jurors continued to judge Black defendants as less guilty than white defendants.
"When racial issues arise in a trial, white mock jurors are on guard against the possibility of prejudicial feelings and maintain the appearance of fairness," Sommers explains. "But when racial issues are not made explicit, white jurors are lenient toward the white defendant and more punitive toward the Black defendant.
"Black mock jurors, on the other hand, do not demonstrate egalitarianism in any condition."
Most white Americans are taught to believe that racism is unacceptable, Sommers and Ellsworth suggest, and may be motivated to deny their prejudiced attitudes against Blacks. Black Americans, raised to be skeptical of the egalitarian claims and promises of white America, may have no particular motivation to conceal their anti-white sentiments.
Or, perhaps Blacks are more likely to view the legal system as inherently biased. Black jurors' conceptions of fairness might require that they demonstrate a degree of same-race leniency in order to level the playing field for Black defendants.
Nevertheless, Sommers and Ellsworth emphasize that the findings do not mean that Black jurors won't convict Black defendants, as many prosecutors maintain.
"In spite of their tendency to correct against perceived injustice in the legal system, Black jurors still give Black defendants high guilt ratings," says Sommers. "It is also worth emphasizing that white jurors---and, by extension, white police officers and white judges, among others---are sometimes prejudiced in their treatment of Black defendants, justifying the skepticism among Black jurors about the fairness of the legal system."
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