Social judgments of credibility and guilt in the criminal justice system

Alexander D. Perry, Amelia Mindthoff and Christian A. Meissner

Chapter 19 in Research Handbook on Social Judgment, 2026, pp 317-335 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Within the criminal justice system, actors such as investigators, judges, and jurors routinely make two consequential social judgments: credibility (truth versus deception; ability to report accurately) and guilt (whether evidence meets the legal threshold to convict). It is important to understand how judgments of credibility and guilt are made by legal actors, as the accuracy of these judgments can have serious implications (e.g., false confessions, wrongful convictions). This chapter describes the importance of social judgments of credibility and guilt, focusing on specific factors that influence how legal actors make such social judgments and highlighting the practical and policy implications of extant research for the legal context.

Keywords: Credibility; Guilt; Bias; Investigative Interviewing; Juror Decision-Making; Wrongful Convictions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035332533
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