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18 Jury Expert 6 (2006)
Biblical Beliefs and Juror Attitudes

handle is hein.journals/jurexp18 and id is 114 raw text is: Biblical Beliefs and Juror Attitudes by Philip F. Monte, Ph.D., J.D. Understanding how a potential juror might lean in a criminal or civil trial, whether towards the prosecution or the defense, or employee plaintiff or corporation, is, of course, the goal of much pretrial research and voir dire. It has become increasingly clear over the past two decades that religious belief and practice, often referred to broadly as religiosity, plays a significant role in how the public views various issues regarding Religiosityplays the criminal and civil justice systems.1 It how thepublic z therefore stands to regarding th reason that a person's religious beliefs and practices can influence the perceptions that he or she brings to jury deliberations. Consider, for instance, the following types of religious variables: church attendance, religious denomination, strength of commitment to one's religious denomination, church fundamentalism, and the belief that the Bible is the literal word of God (Biblical inerrancy). Prior research has found that each is associated with specific attitudes towards certain social issues. For example, members of fundamentalist churches, which tend to be very traditional in their practices and beliefs, tend to hold more conservative political beliefs than members of liberal or mainline denominations on issues such as crime, abortion, and homosexuality.2 However, some research also indicates that they tend to be relatively liberal on economic issues, such as attitudes towards corporations. Collecting data from the venire about more than a handful of these religious variables, at best, can be extremely difficult in many instances due to restricted voir dire in some courts and other practical considerations. Hence, the question arises: Do any of these variables stand out as being especially helpful in understanding how a person might view the issues to be covered at trial? Data drawn from the General Social Survey (GSS) was examined to shed light on how different types significant role in of religiosity might influence whether a juror has a propensity ustice system. to convict at trial (conviction bias).4 GSS survey respondents were asked the following question: All systems ofjustice make mistakes, but which do you think is worse? Respondents were given the following response choices: a. To convict an innocent person, or b. To let a guilty person go free. The religious variables mentioned were statistically analyzed with the following control variables: race, sex, family income, political orientation, political party affiliation, marital status, and age. Of the religious variables examined, only a survey respondent's beliefs regarding the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy was statistically useful in predicting whether he or 1 See, e.g, Grasmick, Harold G., Elizabeth Davenport, Mitchell B. Chamblin, Robert J. Bursik, Jr. Protestant Fundamentalism and the Retributive Doctrine of Punishment. 1992. Criminology, 30:21-45; Curry, Theodore R., Conservative Protestantism and the Perceived Wrongfulness of Crimes: A Research Note. 1996. Criminology 34:(3) 453-464; Young, Robert L., and Carol Y. Thompson, Religious Fundamentalism, Punitiveness, and Firearm Ownership. 1995. Journal of Crime and Justice, 18:81-98. 2 Id., see also, e.g., Greeley, Andrew. Evidence that a Maternal Image of God Correlates with Liberal Politics. 1988. Sociology and Social Research, 72:150-154; Evans, John H., Polarization in Abortion Attitudes in U.S. Religious Traditions, 1972-1998. 2002. Sociological Forum, 17:(3) 397-422. There are numerous sources of scholarly research on this topic. It should be noted the relationship between religiosity and social or political beliefs tends to be complex and defies easy generalization. 3 See generally, Woodberry, Robert D., and Christian S. Smith. Fundamentalism et al: Conservative Protestants in America. 1998. Annual Review of Sociology, 24: 25-26. 4 The General Social Survey is conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC), and is one of the highest quality sources of public opinion data in the United States. Those who are interested may contact the author for coding schemes and details regarding the logistic regression and chi-square statistical analyses that were used to test for predictive significance. Both types of analysis are appropriate where a dependent/categorical dependent variable is under examination. a ej

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