Increasingly, a single forensic expert guides the jury through the DNA evidence; in five out of six DNA cases studied in New South Wales, this was the model (Findlay 2008). The presence of DNA evidence predicts convictions. Archival research revealed that juries were 23 times more likely to vote guilty in homicide cases and 33 times more likely to vote guilty in sexual assault cases when DNA ev...

Judgment aggregation theory investigates which procedures a group could or should use to form collective judgments (‘yes’ or ‘no’) on a given set of propositions or issues, based on the judgments of the group members. How, for instance, should the citizens of a state reach collective judgments on the three propositions that multiculturalism is desirable, that immigration should be promoted, and...

A policy question was posed in 2001 to Canadian publics: should Canada proceed with clinical trials on xenotransplantation and if so, under what conditions? As part of its development of policy and regulations on this medical technology, Health Canada and the Canadian Public Health Association implemented a public consultation process that included a public opinion survey and deliberative citiz...

This paper is about extending stakeholder dialogue to include citizens in decision making which impacts on corporate sustainabilityolicy frameworks using the tools of regulation and economic instruments, and communication strategies, have a significant influence on the level of corporate sustainability. Involving citizens, through the use of deliberative and representative (participatory) proce...

In this article, we examine whether a deliberative mini-public can provide trusted source of information in the context polarized referendum. Political polarization gives rise to selective distrust those on ‘other side’. The Citizens’ Jury Referendum Options Korsholm, Finland, was organized conjunction with referendum municipal merger. Our analysis is based field experiment measuring effects re...

We examined blame attribution as a moderator of perceptions of hate crimes against gay, African American, and transgender victims. Participants were 510 Texas jury panel members. Results of vignette-based crime scenarios showed that victim blame displayed significant negative, and perpetrator blame significant positive, effects on sentencing recommendations. Also as hypothesized, victim and per...