Jury Decision Making and Social Network Analysis

In this work I combine the social network analysis approach with the tradi­tional experimental approach to study the phenomena of jury decision-making. I examine whether with each trial a social network is formed. The jurors the two teams of lawyers as well as the accused and the judge all form a social network with cliques and leaders. This division of individuals into specific cliques along with the lawyers' performance in court is hypothesized to have a significant impact on the jury's verdict. Thus by specifically studying the lawyers' engagement and disengagement on the jurors during a trial and the impact this has on the verdict as well as understanding the structure of the social network that the individual jurors create I hope to shed light on some of the influences that are key in delivering the verdict. In addition this pioneering study may lead to signi­ficant policy changes in the future as well as explain the power of the society on verdicts.