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RACE, IMPACT ONJURIES

The relationship between race and the decision making

of juries is complex and controversial. Media and pub-

lic discussions of the topic often focus on anecdotal evi-

dence in the form of recent high-profile cases in the

United States. Researchers, on the other hand, have

begun to generate a wide-ranging empirical literature

regarding the influence of a defendant’s race on jurors,

between-race differences in juror tendencies, and the

effects of jury racial composition on verdicts and delib-

erations. The findings of these studies are not always

consistent, and the psychological processes through

which race influences decision making merit additional

investigation. Nonetheless, this body of research clearly

indicates that race has the potential to affect trial

outcomes—a conclusion that is noteworthy from a

practical standpoint and carries important implications

for ongoing debates regarding jury representativeness,

peremptory use during jury selection, and racial dispar-

ities in capital sentencing.

Researchers who investigate these issues typically do

not seek to provide definitive conclusions concerning

whether race was influential in any particular case.

Rather, this research attempts to identify—through a

variety of methodologies—general tendencies and sta-

tistical trends regarding race. Some researchers conduct

archival analyses, selecting a sample of actual cases

from a particular jurisdiction over a particular time

period and using regression analysis to determine

whether a variable such as defendant race reliably pre-

dicts verdicts. Other researchers conduct interviews

with former jurors to assess perceptions of the role

played by race at trial or to compare the experiences of

jurors of different races. Social scientists tend to use

mock juror experiments and jury simulations in which

judgments are compared across slightly different ver-

sions of the same case or between juries of different

racial compositions. Each of these research strategies

has unique strengths and limitations, emphasizing the

importance of converging empirical findings from mul-

tiple study types.

Race of Defendant

From a historical perspective, the question of whether

the race of defendants influences legal decision mak-

ing can be answered with a straightforward “yes.” In

the pre–Civil War United States, for example, statutes

mandated that certain behaviors were illegal when

practiced by Blacks but not by Whites; different pun-

ishments were also on the books for White versus

Black perpetrators. Even well into the 20th century,

“Jim Crow” laws not only facilitated racial segregation

in the U.S. South, but also criminalized behaviors and

established punishments that disproportionately tar-

geted Blacks. A long litany of anecdotal examples

indicates that such overtly disparate treatment was not

confined to legislative bodies and law enforcement but

was also apparent in jury verdicts and appellate court

rulings.

In the past half-decade, in the wake of the Civil

Rights Movement and the end of statutory discrimina-

tion, it has become more difficult to provide unqualified

answers to questions regarding defendant’s race. As

fewer individuals become willing to endorse overtly

prejudicial attitudes or to admit to racial discrimination,

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