The biasing nature of gang evidence: inducing memory errors for evidence of past criminal behavior

ABSTRACT

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of introducing gang evidence on jurors’ memory of the evidence and decision-making. In Experiment 1, 234 participants viewed a staged trial. The evidence against the defendant was weak and consisted of a single tentative eyewitness identification. Half of the participants viewed a version of the trial in which the defendant was described as a dangerous gang member, and half viewed the trial with no mention of gangs. Those who heard the gang testimony were significantly more likely to falsely recall hearing evidence that was never presented describing the defendant’s previous criminal conduct and convictions for similar crimes. The second experiment (N = 328) was conducted online to secure a more diverse national sample. The results replicated, as those in the gang condition were significantly more likely to falsely remember hearing testimony about the defendant’s criminal history and to find the defendant guilty.

KEYWORDS:

• Juror decision-making
• false memory
• bias
• gang evidence
• memory

Open Scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badge for Open Data. The data are openly accessible at https://osf.io/3cwd2/files/osfstorage/659b0e9331cc240618ae5953.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from upon reasonable request. All correspondence regarding this paper should be directed to Professor Mitchell Eisen, [email protected].

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the RISE Program of the National Institutes of Health [NIH grant: 5R25GM061331-19].