WHEN PRIOR KNOWLEDGE AND LAW COLLIDE

• NCJ Number: 145256
• Journal: Law and Human Behavior Volume: 17 Issue: 5 Dated: (October 1993) Pages: 507-536
• Author(s): V L Smith
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 30 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Four experiments were conducted to explore potential solutions to the conflict between people's prior knowledge of crime categories and legal definitions.

Abstract

The first experiment investigated the possibility that conflict between prior knowledge of jurors and the law could be avoided; 85 psychology students listened to taped judge instructions for a burglary case and chose verdicts for 12 crime scenarios. The second experiment determined whether improvements in decision accuracy obtained in the first experiment replicated with a different target crime, kidnaping; 80 psychology students listened to tape judge instructions and then made verdict decisions for eight scenarios. The third experiment tested the effectiveness of supplementary instruction designed to discourage subject reliance on prior knowledge of kidnaping. Sixty psychology students were told they should not base verdict decisions on their prior knowledge of what constitutes kidnaping. The final experiment sought to revise the prior knowledge 94 psychology students had of kidnaping so that the information contained in their representations was legally correct. The first two experiments revealed that conflict between people's prior knowledge of crime categories and legal definitions cannot be circumvented by avoiding prior knowledge. Subjects activated and used their prior knowledge of crimes even when the crime name was withheld. The third experiment showed that supplementary instruction to disregard prior knowledge was ineffective, while the final experiment revealed that supplementary instruction designed to revise subjects' existing representations improved decision accuracy. Although the experiments indicate that conflict between people's prior knowledge and the law cannot be avoided easily or disregarded, the impact of such conflict can be reduced by revising people's existing concepts. 30 references and 4 tables