NCJ Number
90136
Date Published
1981
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the current state of voir dire procedures (the process in which prospective jurors are questioned about possible prejudgment or bias) used to detect racial attitudes in court cases involving black defendants and compares voir dire questions allowed and disallowed by the court.
Abstract
Data based upon an assessment of racial attitudes of 43 white psychology students was submitted to a multidimensional scaling procedure to determine the underlying structure of the defense-proposed 'voir dire' questions accepted or rejected by the court. The results of the study were said to suggest that social psychology and the courts have a reciprocal interchange in which the knowledge base in psychology addresses issues in the voir dire and can be used to more effectively detect racial bias, and the voir dire process indicates areas in which present knowledge of racial attitudes can be further studied, expanded, and improved. (Resources in Education (ERIC) abstract)