JURORS AND THEIR VERDICTS
| Author | W. R. Cornish,A. P. Sealy |
| Published date | 01 September 1973 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1973.tb01381.x |
| Date | 01 September 1973 |
JURORS
AND
THEIR VERDICTS
HOW
far is it possible to predict a juror's verdict by reference to
such general characteristics as his
or
her age, sex
or
social class?
This article presents certain results of the L.S.E. Jury Project's
experiments which bear on the question. The Project, it should be
explained, has been conducted at the London School of Economics
over the past five years with the aid of a grant from the Social
Science Research Council. The research has a number of different
aspects, one
of
which (concerning the effect of certain rules of
evidence) we have discussed in a recent article.'
To
avoid repetition
we refer the reader to that article for a more extensive description
of how the experiments were conducted. Here we confine ourselves
to
an outline of the features of the research most germane to the
results under discussion.
Our
research has been conducted during a period in which a
change in the mekhod
of
selecting jurors has been under discussion.
The most important recommendation of the Morris Committee on
Jury Service was that the property qualification for jurors should
be replaced by the rule that (subjeot to exceptions) citizenship as
evidenced by inclusion in the electoral register should be the basis
of liability to jury service.2 In operation, the property qualification
confined jurors to householders who occupied dwellings of a rateable
value of
E20
or
more
(E80
or
more in Greater London). While recent
revaluations for rating have spread the net
so
as
to
include for
the first time the occupiers
of
much working-class housing, non-
householders, of whom women and young adults formed a dis-
proportionate number, have still been excluded. However, the
Criminal Justice Act
1972,
s.
25,
enacts the Morris proposal and, as
well as modifying the rules concerning disqualification, ineligibility
and the right to claim exemption, the section lays down an age limit
of
18-65.8
Though no exact analysis was ever undertaken
of
the age,
sex and class
of
jurors summoned under the system operative until
now (which we shall refer to as the
''
old
"
system), it
is
safe
to
predict that the
"
new
"
system will substantially increase the
proportion of female and young jurors on English juries. How the
class composition of juries will be affected it is harder to say.
In our experiments, the subjects were made up into groups
of
twelve, in order
to
listen to a tape-recorded trial,4 and then
to
discuss and reach a verdict upon what they had heard. Each
1
"
Juries nnd the Rules
of
Evidence
"
119731 Crim.L.R.
208.
2
1065,
Cmnd. 2627,
pare.
61.
3
Previously
21-60.
The process
of
introducing the new system
is
under
way
:
4
The two trials were re-recorded by actors from the transcripts
of
actual trials.
496
we the Criminal Justice Act (Commencement
No.
2) Order 1973.
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