Pica Emily, Pozzulo Joanna
Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Psychiatr Psychol Law. 2017 May 5;24(5):745-759. doi: 10.1080/13218719.2017.1315762. eCollection 2017.
The purpose of the present studies is to examine the influence of crime scene familiarity on mock jurors' decisions. Study 1 also examines eyewitness age and number of descriptor errors. In Study 2, the type of descriptor reported and the number of descriptor errors are examined. The participants were given a trial transcript involving a robbery. No effect of eyewitness age or crime scene familiarity was observed in Study 1; however, descriptor errors were found to decrease the number of guilty verdicts for the defendant. In Study 2, when crime scene descriptors were discussed by the eyewitness, crime scene familiarity was found to be influential such that when the eyewitness was familiar with the crime scene and reported crime scene descriptors with no errors, mock jurors were more likely to render a guilty verdict compared to when there were errors. These results suggest that an eyewitness' familiarity with the crime scene does have the potential to influence mock jurors' decision-making.
本研究的目的是检验犯罪现场熟悉度对模拟陪审员决策的影响。研究1还考察了目击证人的年龄和描述错误的数量。在研究2中，考察了所报告描述词的类型和描述错误的数量。参与者被给予一份涉及抢劫案的审判记录。在研究1中未观察到目击证人年龄或犯罪现场熟悉度的影响；然而，发现描述错误会减少对被告有罪裁决的数量。在研究2中，当目击证人讨论犯罪现场描述词时，发现犯罪现场熟悉度具有影响力，即当目击证人熟悉犯罪现场且所报告的犯罪现场描述词没有错误时，与存在错误的情况相比，模拟陪审员更有可能做出有罪裁决。这些结果表明，目击证人对犯罪现场的熟悉度确实有可能影响模拟陪审员的决策。
