Internal factors affecting the jury members verdict ¹⁶⁰⁴

The article is devoted to the analysis of socio-demographic and individual psychological characteristics that influence the verdict of jury. The study involved 38 men and women aged 25 to 64 years. With the help of a questionnaire, developed on the basis of legal development model by J. Tapp and F. Levine, we revealed levels of jury members’ legal conscience, which, together with socio-demographic characteristics and personality characteristics of the subjects, identified by R. Cattell 16PF Questionnaire, were related to the responses on the Questionnaire while returning verdict on specially selected criminal cases with implicit guilt of the defendant. According to the study, it was determined that the socio-demographic characteristics of the jurors did not significantly affect their verdict, and among the psychological characteristics of the jurors the greatest impact on their verdict has the level of legal development. Thus, depending on the nature of the crime (violent, non-violent or committed through negligence), the same level of legal conscience differently affect the decision of jurors.

Keywords: jury, verdict, level of legal development, violent crimes, non-violent crimes, anxiety, self-control.

Column: Forensic and Clinical Psychology in Legal Context