Public Attitudes About the Jury (From Jury - Proceedings of Seminar on The Jury, 20-22 May 1986, P 75-87, Dennis Challinger, ed. - See NCJ-103890)

• NCJ Number: 103893
• Author(s): I M Vodanovich
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 13 pages
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

After reviewing jury research in the United States, England, and Canada, this article details the methodology and findings of an Australian survey of public attitudes toward juries.

Abstract

Research in the United States and England has not focused on public attitudes toward juries. Its primary concern has been to show the close correspondence of jury verdicts to judicial case assessments. Canadian research in the 1970's included surveys of public opinion about juries. Respondents generally supported the jury system and the option for a jury trial. Canadians also supported jury flexibility in applying the law so as to reflect public conceptions of justice rather than narrow legal mandates. A public opinion survey conducted in Western Australia in 1983 received 600 completed questionnaires from a sample of 1,800 persons. Respondents overwhelmingly supported the constitutional right to a jury trial, preference for a jury when charged with a serious crime, and jury flexibility in applying the law. Respondents supported the use of special juries in cases that involve complex scientific, medical, or commercial evidence, but displayed somewhat less than majority support for special juries to hear the cases of Aboriginal and migrant defendants. Tabular data and 21 references.