Abstract
This chapter has three purposes. The first purpose is to develop a method for determining the values of jurors regarding their propensities to convict or acquit. The second purpose is to use that method to determine how those propensities differ across types of jurors and cases, and how the propensities influence decisions. The third and main purpose is to discuss how such propensities can be brought more into line with the legal rules which specify that defendants should not be convicted unless they appear to be guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The authors thank the Public Policy Committee of the Ford Foundation and the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission for financial aid in supporting the larger research project relating to decision theory and the legal process of which this chapter is a part. Many ideas have been added to this version of the analysis which did not appear in the earlier version that is part of S. Nagel and M. Neef, Decision Theory and the Legal Process (Lexington, Mass.: Heath, 1979).
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© 1981 Plenum Press, New York
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Nagel, S., Lamm, D., Neef, M. (1981). Decision Theory and Juror Decision-Making. In: Sales, B.D. (eds) The Trial Process. Perspectives in Law & Psychology, vol 2. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-3767-6_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-3767-6_10
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