The impact of illegal alibi activities, corroborator involvement and corroborator certainty on mock juror perceptions
Faculty Advisor
Date
2014
Keywords
alibi believability, criminal defendants, jury decision-making
Abstract (summary)
Undergraduate mock jurors (N= 360) received a mock police report and trial in which a suspect was accused of rape. The suspect offered one of three alibis: a sexually salacious and illegal alibi, a non-sexually salacious and illegal alibi, and a control condition. The corroborator either helped or observed him in his illegal alibi activities and was either 100 or 80% sure she was with him that night. Alibi salaciousness did not significantly affect alibi believability although it had a significant impact on views of the defendant's and corroborator's characters, corroborator believability, and verdict certainty. The non-sexually salacious alibi generally led to higher ratings on these measures in comparison with the control condition. Corroborator certainty had significant effects on perceptions of the corroborator.
Publication Information
DOI
Notes
Item Type
Article
Language
English
Rights
All Rights Reserved