Priming the jury by asking for Donations: An empirical and experimental study

Jason Aimone, Charles North and Lucas Rentschler

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2019, vol. 160, issue C, 158-167

Abstract: In 1995, Texas passed a law requiring that jurors be provided an opportunity to donate jury pay to a crime victims fund. In practice, courts present this opportunity before jury selection begins, priming the jurors about the needs of crime victims, which could bias jury decision-making. We report correlational evidence that conviction rates increased after this policy was imposed. To explore a causal link, we ran a laboratory experiment, finding that male jurors are more likely to convict a defendant after being given the opportunity to donate, while female jurors are less likely to convict.

Keywords: Law; Policy; Jury; Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D78 K40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:160:y:2019:i:c:p:158-167

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2019.01.022

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