When Juveniles are Tried as Adults: The Effects of Voir Dire on Jury Composition and Juror Decisions

这项研究将考察在青少年在成人法庭受审的案件中，预审是否会导致陪审团更容易定罪。被转移到成人法庭的青少年与成年刑事被告享有相同的权利，但当青少年罪犯被转移到成人法庭时，他们获得具有代表性和公正的陪审团的权利是否被取消了？这项研究将使用四项研究来解决以下问题：法官是否会问韦尼耶关于青少年罪犯案件在宣判期间可能受到的惩罚的问题，以及这些问题对陪审员的决定有什么影响？青少年的放弃态度是否与人口变量相关，以至于少数群体成员可能因为他们反对放弃的态度而被排除在陪审员之外？加入持反对弃权态度的陪审员是否增加了陪审团评估所提出证据的质量的能力？最后，暴露在青少年罪犯案件中的谨慎问题是否会导致陪审团更容易被定罪？为了回答这些问题，首席调查员将收集青少年在成人法庭受审的案例样本，并对文本进行内容分析。这一初步探索将使研究人员能够描述在这些情况下发生的典型情况。在研究2中，研究人员将检查特定的态度和人口统计特征是否与反青少年放弃态度相关。在研究3中，将进行陪审团模拟，其中一半的陪审团包括持反对放弃态度的陪审员，另一半则不包括，这改变了证据的强度。为了调查暴露于“青少年资格”是否会导致陪审团更容易被定罪，研究人员将在研究4中让一些陪审员在青少年罪犯案件中接受模拟情景，而其他陪审员在缺少青少年放弃态度问题的情况下进行。这四项研究的结果将提供有关青少年放弃案件中的情景过程的信息。

This research will examine whether voir dire results in a more conviction prone jury in cases where juveniles are tried in adult courts. Juveniles who are transferred to adult court have the same rights as adult criminal defendants, but are the rights of juvenile offenders to a representative and impartial jury abrogated when they are transferred to adult court? This research will use four studies to address the following questions: Do judges ask veniremembers questions about the possible penalty during voir dire in youthful offender cases and what effect do these questions have on juror decisions? Are juvenile waiver attitudes correlated with demographic variables such that minority group members are likely to be excluded from jury service because of their anti-waiver attitudes? Does the inclusion of jurors with anti-waiver attitudes increase the ability of a jury to evaluate the quality of the evidence presented? Finally, does exposure to voir dire questions in juvenile offender cases result in a more conviction-prone jury? To answer these questions, the principal investigator will collect and content analyze transcripts from a sample of cases in which juveniles were tried in adult courts. This initial exploration will allow the researchers to characterize the typical voir dire that occurs in these cases. In Study 2, the researchers will examine whether particular attitudes and demographic characteristics are correlated with anti-juvenile waiver attitudes. In Study 3, a jury simulation will be conducted in which half of the juries include jurors with anti-waiver attitudes and half do not, varying the strength of the evidence. To investigate whether exposure to "juvenile qualification" produces a more conviction prone jury, the researchers will expose some jurors to a simulated voir dire in a juvenile offender case and other jurors to a voir dire that lacks questions about juvenile waiver attitudes in Study 4. The results of these four studies will provide information about the voir dire process in juvenile waiver cases.