RT Article
T1 Can Molecular Genetic Evidence Influence Jurors’ Perceptions of a Defendant? Results From a Randomized Experiment
JF Criminal justice and behavior
VO 44
IS 8
SP 1101
OP 1119
A1 Costa, Elise T.
A2 Gibson, Chris L.
A2 Pate, Margaret
LA English
YR 2017
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1700761447
AB Despite increases in genetic evidence being used as mitigating or aggravating factors in criminal cases, few studies have examined whether evidence of a defendant’s genotype influences legal decision making of jurors. Using a randomized experiment, this study examined whether potential jurors’ legal decisions are affected when a defendant’s molecular genetic information is entered as mitigating evidence. Participants served as potential jurors from two universities (N = 279). Results from multivariate regression models suggest that genetic evidence does not influence punitive attitudes toward a defendant. However, genetic evidence did have a statistically significant effect on fearfulness of the defendant. Participants assigned to the condition in which evidence of the defendant possesses genetic risk of criminality and a history of child abuse were the most fearful of the defendant. We conclude by describing how our findings are related to past research, and we also discuss implications of our study for future research.
K1 Biosocial
K1 Juries
K1 Courts
K1 Criminology
K1 5HTTLPR
K1 DRD4
DO 10.1177/0093854817715882