NCJ Number
142806
Journal
Law and Human Behavior Volume: 17 Issue: 3 Dated: (June 1993) Pages: 343-360
Date Published
1993
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This study of procedural due process and due process/crime control attitudes used a sample of 383 university psychology and sociology students; 116 recruits from jury assembly rooms in California (prior to actual participation in a jury) were used only as an independent source of verification for the factor structure of due process attitudes detected among the student sample.
Abstract
Two variables in a simulated criminal case -- defendant identity and illegal evidence -- were fully crossed in a between-subjects factorial design. Results of factor analysis and correlational analysis suggested that there is a differentiation between a specific measure of procedural due process and a more ideologically broad measure of due process/crime control. Student jurors who measured high in procedural due process were impartial across two defendants with opposing political convictions and were able to disregard illegal evidence. Students high in due process/crime control tended to use illegal evidence against both defendants and to convict a white police officer more often than a Hispanic janitor. These results demonstrate the need to establish a criterion of support for due process that is based on legal decision making and independent of expressed support for attitudinal positions. 4 tables, 7 notes, 35 references, and 2 appendixes