Guilty or Not Guilty, Research Paper Example

Purpose of the study

My particular interest is in the sociological aspect of forensics and looking at how jurors reach decisions based upon information presented to them. They essentially have to reach a decision of Guilty or Not Guilty but cannot deliver a Guilty verdict if a degree of reasonable doubt exists. This behaviour was best depicted in the film 12 Angry Men starring Henry Fonda “A dissenting juror in a murder trial slowly manages to convince the others that the case is not as obviously clear as it seemed in court.” (IMDB, 2010). The proposal is to base a simple case study of a crime study and then ask respondents to read the study and answer a number of questions to see if they can reach a Guilty or Not Guilty verdict given that the cannot convict a guilty vote  if reasonable doubt exists.  The emphasis will be placed on providing a reasonable doubt condition but seeing if other elements influence or persuade the reader to deliver a guilty verdict.  Consideration of the aspects of human behaviour influencing our reasoning for balanced judgements. .  A number of scenarios were then presented to determine your strength of reasoning from poor to strong belief.  The main issue being as a juror you could not bring in a guilty verdict if reasonable doubt existed.  The proposed assailant in many regards appeared guilty of the crime but there existed a degree of reasonable doubt and as such I delivered a “not guilty” verdict in this experiment.  The questionnaire takes 10 minutes to complete, the research team will respect confidentiality and  have indicated no risk in the study participants.

Potential risks

The online questionnaire will represent no risks to those filling it out. Contribution would be completely anonymous and the data used for research and statistical information purposes only.  The exercise is useful from a sociological perspective as it help to illustrate how the work of jurors is performed and the need to understand and analyze information in order to arrive at an impartial, unbiased and reasoned decision.  It is useful to understand both the concept and perspective of ‘reasonable doubt’ in the context of law.  We all may be called upon to serve on a jury during our lifetime and as such this exercise in thinking is a useful psychological exercise.  All information submitted through the online question and answer dialogue is completely confidential.  No information is requested from the individuals other than to confirm that they are over 18 years of age and consent to the uses of the information provided for University research data.  Similar research experiments have been conducted by researchers from the School of Psychology at Curtin University. [1]

The internet provides a wealth of information for researchers but there are both advantages and disadvantages of using this, consider:

Advantages

• There are good sources if used wisely; search engines like Google scholar and Google books place you into more robust academic journals and books.
• You have a huge diversified library of information at your disposal
• Search engines make analysis and location of data relatively easy
• You can obtain data from different cultures and backgrounds

Disadvantages

• Sites like Wikipedia may not be factual or good sources of data
• Information needs to be verified for reliability: cross referencing a number of different sources is often a good way of doing this
• You need to distinguish between facts and opinions. Journalism vs. Academic sources of data

In general the internet has provided an extremely good source of information for postgraduate students and researchers.  In general terms it should be regarded as one source of research and supplemented by other activities.

Minimizing risk

In order to minimize risk over the internet and any damage to the participants it is important to consult a range of different subject matter experts. “ Researchers must seek a range of experts in technology, data security, privacy and confidentiality in relation to research conducted over the internet” (NIMH, 2007).  It is often most appropriate to obtain a statement of informed consent similar to that illustrated below:

“I have read this consent and Authorization form. I have had the opportunity to ask, and I have received answers to, any questions I had regarding the study.  I understand that if I have any additional questions about my rights as a research participant, I may call (xxx) xxx-xxxx or (xxx) xxx-xxxx, write the Human Subjects Committee Lawrence Campus (HSCL), University of Kansas, 2385 Irving Hill Road, Lawrence, Kansas xxxxx-xxxx or email [email protected].

Works Cited

IMDB. (2010). 12 Angry Men. Retrieved 9 10, 2010, from IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050083/

NIMH. (2007, 5). Internet Based Research Interventions. Retrieved 9 10, 2010, from National Institute of Mental Health: http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:9tKxIbYHxrwJ:www.nimh.nih.gov/research-funding/grants/internet-based-rsch-interventions-chart-may2007.pdf+minimising+risk+with+online+research+questionnaires&hl=en&gl=ca&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShNktp6_3oGmgW4zt3e5OO_7k

University of Kansas. (2010). Example of Adult Informed Consent. Retrieved 9 10, 2010, from University of Kansas: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:zY_v-BSZYbkJ:www.rcr.ku.edu/hscl/hscl_handbook/appendix_b/researcher_forms/example_consent_forms/signed_consent_form.doc+statement+of+informed+consent&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca

[1] An experiment produced by researchers Shelley Maxwell, Christopher Mearns and Charlotte Middleton at the School of Psychology Curtin University.