essay on 16 marker scenario question, about factors influencing eyewitness testimony and relating back to scenario.
including 4 PEEL paragraphs and a conclusion for top band marks
Paper 2 Q10 2020
10 Cassandra is on trial for a recent case of burglary. She is 24 years old, white, of
slim build and considered to be attractive. Her lawyer advises her to dress in a smart
suit for the trial to make a good impression on the jury. She has a strong local accent,
which is considered to be an unpopular accent. The trial is taking place over 100
miles away from Cassandra’s home town, as this is where the alleged burglary took
place.
To what extent may Cassandra’s characteristics affect the jury’s decision-making in
her trial?
You must make reference to the context in your answer. (16)
Cassandra’s characteristics may affect the jury’s decision making in her trial. The
attractiveness effect is when juries are more likely to give verdicts of not guilty to attractive
defendants but less likely to do so with unattractive defendants. For example, Sigall and
Ostrove (1975) found that when participants had to give sentence recommendations for a
female defendant who was charged with either burglary or fraud, they found that the
defendant was given less time in prison for burglary in the attractive photo condition but
more time in prison for fraud. This implies that the attractiveness of the photograph
influenced the jury’s decision due to the assumption that attractive people use their looks to
con people out of their money, whilst they are not usually associated with burglary. This
suggests that attractive defendants of slim build such as Cassandra may be less likely to
receive a sentence of not guilty in burglary incriminations, as this study shows that attractive
defendants were less likely to be found guilty for burglary compared to fraud. However, this
study was not applicable to real trials considering that the jury only makes a decision on guilt
and only the judge decides the length of the sentence to ensure impartiality. This means that
the jurors’ decisions in this study may not have been representative of real life criminal trials,
however, they helped to provide us a perception of how jurors may view defendants with
certain degrees of attractiveness. Therefore, Cassandra may have better chances of
receiving not guilty verdicts if she dresses in a smart suit to make a good impression on the
jury as advised by her lawyer.
Cassandra’s race may not affect the jury’s decision making on her trial. The defendant’s race
may be important in influencing the outcome of a trial, especially when black defendants are
being judged. However, some research such as Hough (2001) shows that white people
demonstrate no ethnic bias, whereas black juries tend to be more lenient towards
defendants of their own race. Since Cassandra is white, her race may not affect jury decision
making because it has been shown that white juries show no ethnic bias, meaning that they
may not favour or be lenient towards defendants of their own race. This implies that
Cassandra being white will not make her less likely to receive a verdict of not guilty by the
jury. However, other research such as Shaw (1997) conveys that the composition of the race
of the jury might impact their decision making. For example, black jurors were not lenient
towards white defendants as opposed to white jurors when a black defendant was
concerned. This shows that white defendants such as Cassandra may not be less likely to
receive a verdict of not guilty if her jury is composed of mostly black people. This implies that
her likelihood of being convicted of burglary or not will depend on the racial composition of
the jury.
Cassandra’s strong local accent might influence jury decision making on her trial. The
defendant’s accent has been shown to affect jury decision making in mock trials. For
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