This week’s lesson was applying social psychology to the criminal justice system. One of the topics discussed was jury selection. I would like to start off by saying that I have yet to be summoned for jury duty; I have not had that opportunity yet. From what I have gathered over the years from people is that jury duty is not something most people look forward to or participate in with great enthusiasm. I, on the other hand having not had the experience yet, think that it may be exciting, or at least interesting to be able to be a part of helping to “close” a case so to speak.
With that being said, one of the concepts related to jury selection discussed in our lesson commentary as well as our chapter reading is what is referred to as generic prejudice. Generic prejudice is more likely to occur in cases where the defendant is facing murder or sexual assault charges. Generic prejudice is when a person carries general attitudes that would interfere with an unbiased evaluation of the evidence (Schneider, F.W., Gruman, J.A. & Coutts, L.M., 2012). In other words, the person is more likely to convict based on the nature of the crime and not the facts of the case itself (Nelson, A., 2017). Our lesson commentary also attributes this concept to what is known as the cognitive resource theory. The cognitive resource theory basically states that stressful or highly emotional information takes up more space in our brains than rational facts do and therefore we make a less accurate decision using fewer details.
After reading about that it made me stop and think. Even though I may be weird or at least the exception when it comes to wanting to experience jury duty, I am now questioning whether I would be excluded from jury duty do to generic prejudice or not. When watching the news and hearing about a trial going on, I often find myself having emotionally charged judgements of a person based on the nature of the crime rather than listening to the facts being presented. Now granted, as we also read in our lesson, we do not usually get all the facts of the case from the news media; such was the case in the Casey Anthony murder trial. As a mother of three young children though, I very negatively judged her and her parenting skills. I can’t say that I specifically felt or thought that she was guilty or innocent; I did not make that judgement because I did not know all the facts. However, when it comes to murder and sexual assault crimes involving children I do hold very strong generic prejudices against people capable of committing such acts, or that are presumed to have committed such acts because I am a mother myself. So would this prevent me from being able to be selected for jury duty…possibly? I guess it would all depend on the type of case I was being selected to jury duty for.
References:
Nelson, Anthony (2017). Type of Case. Lesson 8 Commentary, PSU World Campus.
Schneider, F.W., Gruman, J.A. & Coutts, L.M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology (2nd Ed.): Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA. SAGE Publications, Inc.
Interesting post! I agree that generic prejudice seems inevitable based on the nature of the crime especially when children are involved. When we purely evaluate the evidence of the crime and facts that lead us to decide that defendant is innocent, we will be more likely to have cognitive dissonance regardless of the facts presented. It is a bit scary to imagine how many innocent people are wrongfully convicted due to generic prejudice that jurors hold against them. Since jurors are already influenced by generic prejudice, the defendants do not even have a fair chance of proving their innocence. Even if they try, their plea would be most likely rejected. I also will be likely to have generic prejudice against crimes that involved children, animals, and members of minority groups. And, I will be more likely to convict those who are being tired based on the nature of the crime as well. This makes me wonder how effective our jury system is and negative impacts that are made to our justice system altogether.