Jury Hub from OpenLearn - a video introduction

Whether it is a civil or a criminal trial, jury’s and judges make important decisions to that influence the lives of accused individuals. In criminal trials jury’s make decisions in relation to different verdicts, commonly the verdicts open to jurors in trials are the guilty and not guilty verdicts. Researchers interested in juries and jurors explore the factors which may shape how verdicts are chosen. Biases (such as racial biases) and different verdict systems (for example, the guilty, not guilty and not proven verdicts system currently used in Scotland) have all been shown to impact on how jurors evaluate evidence and the verdicts they ultimately deliver. Our role as academics is to establish how certain factors, such as biases, may influence juror decision making, and then investigate mechanisms by which we can counteract those biases in order to ensure that every accused individual is provided with a fair trial and that the decision making of jurors is being scaffolded to ensure accurate decision making. This jury hub hopes to achieve just that. In this space blogs, videos and podcasts will be provided to introduce you to the world of juror and jury decision making. Enjoy!!