NCJ Number
154131
Date Published
1994
Length
407 pages
Annotation
Focusing mainly on criminal juries while including discussion of the civil jury, this volume traces the evolution of the jury system and examines current issues such as the effectiveness of the jury system, the factors that make a jury fair, whether juries should be balanced by race and gender, and whether a science of jury selection exists.
Abstract
The analysis also considers whether jurors can be both impartial and informed, whether some prospective jurors must be routinely disqualified in cases involving pretrial publicity, whether jurors should function as the community conscience even if that means that they can flout the law, and the factors that influence jurors to decide for capital punishment. The discussion considers legal and constitutional issues, social science findings, and historical examples to trace the development of the jury system from an intimate institution of small-town justice to the institution of today. It emphasizes how changes in jury practice reflect larger changes in the practice of democracy and argues for the view that supports the jury as a deliberative rather than a representative group. Footnotes, tables, appended background data, index, and chapter reference notes (Publisher summary modified)