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

当青少年像成年人一样受审时：Voir Dire 对陪审团组成和陪审员决定的影响

• 批准号: 0136652
• 负责人: Margaret Bull Kovera
• 金额: $ 30.01万
• 依托单位: Florida International University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-04-01 至 2004-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0136652&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: When; Juveniles; Tried; Adults; Effects

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.

这项研究将检验在未成年人在成人法庭受审的案件中，陪审团是否会更倾向于定罪。移送成人法庭的未成年人享有与成年刑事被告相同的权利，但移送成人法庭时，少年犯要求代理人和公正陪审团的权利是否被取消？本研究将使用四项研究来解决以下问题：法官是否会在青少年罪犯案件的口头审查中询问关于可能的惩罚的问题，这些问题对陪审员的决定有什么影响？青少年弃权的态度是否与人口统计变量相关，例如少数群体成员可能因为他们反对弃权的态度而被排除在陪审团服务之外？加入持反对弃权态度的陪审员是否提高了陪审团评估所提证据质量的能力？最后，在少年犯案件中，暴露于口头审查问题是否会导致陪审团更倾向于定罪？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其进行内容分析。这一初步探索将使研究人员能够描述在这些病例中发生的典型的口头陈述。在研究2中，研究者将研究特定的态度和人口统计学特征是否与反青少年弃权态度相关。在研究3中，将进行陪审团模拟，其中一半的陪审团包括反对豁免态度的陪审员，一半不包括反对豁免态度的陪审员，从而改变证据的强度。为了调查“未成年人资格”是否会使陪审团更倾向于定罪，研究人员在研究4中将一些陪审员暴露在模拟的少年犯案件的口头陈述中，而其他陪审员则暴露在缺乏关于未成年人放弃态度问题的口头陈述中。这四项研究的结果将提供有关未成年人弃权案件的口头审查程序的信息。