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Forensic Psychology and Jury Selection
Forensic psychology and jury selection go hand in hand. Forensic psychologists are psychologists who understand the criminal justice system. They know about both psychology and the law, so they have a clear view about who may and may not make a good candidate for a jury. If you are considering a career in forensic psychology, you will most likely work with a jury selection process at some point in your career. Here is a brief overview of what that work may entail.
Ruling out Jury Candidates
Ruling out jury candidates is what you may consider the “easy” part of jury selection. All you have to do is figure out if a person is going to be blatantly biased in a case. Relatives of people in the case and former victims of similar cases can automatically be ruled out. Sometimes people may also be ruled out based on their religious or political beliefs. As a forensic psychologist, you have to assess applications and interviews to determine if a person is truly going to make a fair judgment in court. If he or she can, then you know you have a good candidate.
Selecting the Right Jury Candidates
Once you have narrowed down you list of fitting jury candidates, you have to work with lawyers and other members of the court system to select the best fit jurors for a criminal case. You will need to cover a wide variety of situations to make sure that a person gets a fair trial. A jury full of white men under the age of 40 may not be as diverse as you need it to be. You have to consider race, lifestyle, religion, political beliefs, and everything else to determine who should and should not be on a jury. This is harder than it looks, but at the end of the day, it is something you have to do.
Do All Forensic Psychologists Work in Jury Selection?
No, not all forensic psychologists work in jury selection. In fact, there are some situations where forensic psychology and jury selection never cross paths. If you work in small claims court of family court, you may never be asked to select the jury for a case. Only if you work in a criminal court setting will you potentially be called upon to do this. Nevertheless, it is important to realize what goes on with this job duty, as it may be something you want to do in the future. That all depends on where you decide to work once you get out of school. Take a class in jury selection during your time in college and see if it is something you want to do. If so, you may have a lot of work in store for your future.
