Group Composition and Legal Decision Making

• In Event: New Methodological Approaches in the Study of Law and Courts

Abstract

A number of factors inform judges’ decision-making processes, including: the law, case facts, judges’ ideologies and preferences. This paper asks how state trial judges’ colleagues’ identities affect their decisions. Scholars have shown that the introduction of one female or Black judge on an otherwise all male or White appellate panel can alter the votes of the male/White panel members. However this dynamic is understudied in trial courts where judges render their decisions alone. Drawing from studies of panel effects, implicit bias, and the effects of group composition on individual decision making, we conduct a series of experiments to identify how and the extent to which the composition of judges’ groups of colleagues affect their decisions in criminal trials.

Authors

• Allison P. Harris, Pennsylvania State University

• Amir Fairdosi