The impact of death qualification, belief in a just world, legal authoritarianism, and locus of control on venirepersons' evaluations of aggravating and mitigating circumstances in capital trials

Behavioral Sciences and the Law

Volumn 25, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 57-68

  Butler, Brooke ^a   Moran, Gary ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NORTH FLORIDA   (United States)

^b FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ADULT; ARTICLE; ATTITUDE TO DEATH; COURT; CRIMINAL JUSTICE; DEMOGRAPHY; FEMALE; GUILT; HUMAN; HUMAN EXPERIMENT; JUSTICE; LEGAL ASPECT; MALE; OFFENDER; PERCEPTION; PUNISHMENT; QUESTIONNAIRE; RATING SCALE;

AUTHORITARIANISM; CAPITAL PUNISHMENT; CULTURE; FLORIDA; HUMANS; INTERNAL-EXTERNAL CONTROL; QUESTIONNAIRES; SOCIAL JUSTICE;

EID: 33947151009     PISSN: 07353936     EISSN: 10990798     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/bsl.734     Document Type: Article

References (42)

1. Adorno, T., Frenkel-Brunswick, E., Levinson, D., & Sanford, N. (1950). The authoritarian personality. New York: Harper and Row.
2. Atkins v. Virginia, 536 US 304 (2002).
3. Bersoff, D. N. (1987). In the Supreme Court of the United States: Lockhart v. McCree. American Psychologist, 42, 59-68.
4. Boehm, V. R. (1968). Mr. Prejudice, Ms. Sympathy, and the authoritarian personality: An application of psychological measuring, techniques to the problem of jury bias. Wisconsin Law Review 734-750.
5. Butler, B. (inpress-a). The role of death qualification in capital trials involving juvenile defendants. Journal of Applied Social Psychology.
6. Butler, B. (inpress-b). The role of death qualification injurors' susceptibility to pretrial publicity. Journal of Applied Social Psychology.
7. Butler, B., Moran, G. (2002). The role of death qualification in venirepersons' perceptions of aggravating and mitigating circumstances in capital trials. Law and Human Behavior, 26, 175-184.
8. Butler, B., & Wasserman, A. W. (2006). The role of death qualification in venirepersons' attitudes toward the insanity defense. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 36(7), 1743-1756.
9. Cowan, C. L., Thompson, W. C., & Ellsworth, P. C. (1984). The effects of death qualification on jurors' predisposition to convict and on the quality of deliberation. Law and Human Behavior, 8, 53-79.
10. Cutler, B. L., Moran, G., & Narby, D. J. (1992). Jury selection in insanity defense cases. Journal of Research in Personality, 26, 165-182.
11. Diamond, S. S. (1993). Instructing on death: Psychologist, juries, and judges. American Psychologist, 48, 423-434.
12. Dillehay, R. C., & Sandys, M. R. (1996). Life under Wainwright v. Witt: Juror dispositions and death qualification. Law and Human Behavior, 20, 147-165.
13. Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
14. Fitzgerald, R., & Ellsworth, P. C. (1984). Due process vs. crime control: Death qualification and jury attitudes. Law and Human Behavior, 8, 31-51.
15. Foley, L. A., & Pigott, M. A. (2000). Belief in a just world and jury decisions in a civil rape trial. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 30, 935-951.
16. Furnam, A. (2003). Belief in a just world: Research progress over the past decade. Personality and Individual Differences, 24, 795-817.
17. Grigsby v. Mabry, 758 F.2d 226 (1985).
18. Hafer, C. (2000). Do innocent victims threaten a belief in a just world? Evidence from a modified Stroop task. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 165-173.
19. Haney, C. (1984a). On the selection of capital juries: The biasing effects of the death qualification process. Law and Human Behavior, 8, 121-132.
20. Haney, C. (1984b). Examining death qualification: Further analysis of the process effect. Law and Human Behavior, 8, 133-151.
21. Haney, C., Hurtado, A., & Vega, L. (1994). "Modern" death qualification: New data on its biasing effects. Law and Human Behavior, 18, 619-633.
22. Hans, V. P. (1986). Death by jury, In K. C. Haas & J. A. Incardi (Eds.), Challenging capital punishment: Legal and social science approaches. Beverley Hills: Sage.
23. Kravitz, D. A., Cutler, B. L., & Brock, P. (1993). Reliability and validity of the original and revised Legal Attitudes Questionnaire. Law and Human Behavior, 17, 661-677.
24. Lerner, M. J. (1980). The belief in a just world: A fundamental delusion. New York, NY: Plenum.
25. Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586 (1978).
26. Lockhart v. McCree, 476 U. S. 162 (1986).
27. Luginbuhl, J. (1992). Comprehension of judges' instructions in the penalty phase of a capital trial: Focus on mitigating circumstances. Law and Human Behavior, 16, 203-218.
28. Luginbuhl, J., & Middendorf, K. (1988). Death penalty beliefs and jurors' responses to aggravating and mitigating circumstances in capital trials. Law and Human Behavior, 12, 263-281.
29. Lynch, M., & Haney, C. (2000). Discrimination and instructional comprehension: Guided discretion, racial bias, and the death penalty. Law and Human Behavior, 24, 337-358.
30. Martin, T. A., & Cohn, E. S. (2004). Attitudes toward the criminal legal system: Scale development and predictors. Psychology, Crime, and Law, 10, 367-391.
31. Moran, G., & Comfort, J. C. (1982). Scientific juror selection: Sex as a moderator of demographic and personality predictors of impaneled felony juror behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, 1052-1063.
32. Moran, G., & Comfort, J. C. (1986). Neither "tentative" nor "fragmentary:" Verdict preference of impaneled felony jurors as a function of attitude toward capital punishment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 146-155.
33. Narby, D. J., Cutler, B. L., & Moran, G. (1993). A meta-analysis of the association between authoritarianism and jurors' perceptions of defendant culpability. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 34-42.
34. Nowicki, S., & Duke, M. P. (1983). The Nowicki-Strickland life span locus of control scales: Construct validation. In H. M. Lefcourt (Ed.), Research with the locus of control construct (p. 33). New York: Academic.
35. Robinson, R. J. (1993). What does "unwilling to impose the death penalty mean anyway? Another look at excludable jurors. Law and Human Behavior, 17, 471-477.
36. Roper v. Simmons, 112 S.W. 3rd 397 (Supreme Ct. of Missouri, 2005).
37. Rubin, Z., & Peplau, A. (1975). Who believes in a just world? Journal of Social Issues, 31, 65-89.
38. Thompson, W. C., Cowan, C. L., Ellsworth, P. C., & Harrington, J. C. (1984). Death penalty attitudes and conviction proneness: The translation of attitudes into verdicts. Law and Human Behavior, 8, 95-113.
39. Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science, 185, 1124-1131.
40. Wainwright v. Witt, 469 U. S. 412 (1985).
41. Weir, J. A., & Wrightsman, L. S. (1990). The determinants of mock verdicts in rape cases. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 20, 901-919.
42. Wiener, R. L., Prichard, C. C., & Weston, M. (1995). Comprehensibility of approved jury instructions in capital murder cases. Journal of Applied Psychology, 80, 455-467.