By David Tait and Jane Goodman-Delahunty
This chapter uses insights from two studies into a mock trial, ‘the Sydney Bomber Case’, that involved a fictional alleged terrorist incident in which a young white man was accused of placing a bomb on a train that exploded after he alighted, killing innocent commuters in the centre of Sydney.
It reviews the estimated impact of the experimental intervention – the interactive virtual environment, including:
- The overall effects of these environments on jurors
- The gender differences in responses to the interactive virtual environment
- The influence of mock juror learning style on responses to the interactive virtual environment
- The influence of mock juror threshold for conviction on responses to the interactive virtual environment
- Conviction rates and level of culpability by visual and verbal learners
- The influence of interactive visual evidence and jury instructions on verdicts.
It found that differences were generally small. Jurors who were classified as visual learners were more influenced by information presented in visual form than jurors who self-identified as verbal learners.
This chapter is useful for:
- Students, teachers, researchers – in Law, Psychology and Communications
- Practitioners of law and criminal justice
- Forensic scientists and psychologists
- Police, national security officers and court officials
- Policymakers
- Journalists.
The book
This chapter is in the book Juries, Science and Popular Culture in the Age of Terror
Other related chapters
Other chapters that provide research insights arising from the ‘the Sydney Bomber Case’ are:
Chapter 4: Animating the Bomber: The Sydney Bomber Trial
Chapter 7: Displaying the Bomb on the Train: The Challenge of Preparing Visual Evidence
Chapter 8: Research Aims and Methods
Chapter 9: The Sydney Bomber Study: Introducing the Mock Jurors
Chapter 11: How Juries Talked About Visual Evidence
Chapter 12: CSI Effects on Jury Reasoning and Verdicts
Chapter 13: The Effect of Deliberation on Jury Verdicts
Chapter 14: Making Sense of The Evidence: Jury Deliberation and Common Sense