ABSTRACT

Several lethal police use of force (UoF) encounters have recently occurred across North America, sparking public debate about officer accountability. This project investigated what jurors discuss during deliberations in simulated trials involving UoF and evaluated whether the race of the victim affects individual verdicts and deliberation content. Canadian jury-eligible participants (N = 78) watched and listened to a fictional trial involving a police officer charged with manslaughter with a White or Indigenous victim. After rendering individual pre-deliberation verdicts, mock jurors took part in a 60-minute deliberation session, then rendered individual post-deliberation verdicts. Although victim race did not have a statistically significant effect on pre-deliberation verdicts, the odds of jurors rendering a guilty post-deliberation verdict was nearly 10 times higher when the victim was White as opposed to Indigenous. Deliberation analyses indicated that jurors were significantly more likely to provide ‘anti-defendant’ and ‘pro-prosecution’ utterances when the victim was White as compared to Indigenous. However, jurors very rarely directly discussed race in deliberations. Additionally, jurors with negative perceptions of police were significantly more likely to utter ‘anti-defendant’ statements. Overall, this study suggests that, contrary to the assumption of the Canadian legal system, victim race influences legal decision-making in trials involving officer UoF.

摘要

最近，北美各地发生了多起警察使用武力致死的事件，引发了关于警察责任的公众辩论。该项目调查了陪审员在涉及 UoF 的模拟审判中讨论的内容，并评估了受害者的种族是否影响个人判决和审议内容。加拿大评审团资格参赛者（N = 78）观看并聆听了一场虚构的审判，该审判涉及一名被指控过失杀人白人或原住民受害者的警察。模拟陪审员在作出个别预审判决后，进行了60分钟的评议，随后作出了个别审后判决。尽管受害人种族对审议前判决没有统计上的显着影响，但当受害人是白人时，陪审员在审议后做出有罪判决的可能性比土著人高出近 10 倍。审议分析表明，与原住民相比，当受害者是白人时，陪审员更有可能发表“反被告”和“支持起诉”的言论。然而，陪审员很少在审议中直接讨论种族问题。此外，对警察持负面看法的陪审员更有可能发表“反被告”言论。总体而言，本研究表明，与加拿大法律体系的假设相反，受害者种族会影响涉及 UoF 警官的审判中的法律决策。