Venirepersons's attitudes toward the insanity defense: developing, refining, and validating a scale.
Given the prevalence and predictive strength of negative attitudes toward the insanity defense, we conducted three studies with 426 venirepersons to develop an understanding and a measure of public attitudes toward the insanity defense. In these studies, we developed, iteratively refined, and cross-validated the insanity defense attitude-revised (IDA-R) scale. The results suggest that IDAs are underpinned by one's degree of (a) orientation toward strict liability, and (b) concern about perceived injustice and danger associated with the defense. The IDA-R assesses these two-dimensions with good internal consistency, convergent and divergent validity, and predictive utility. The IDA-R's predictive utility generalizes across jurisdictions and manipulation of case facts. Theoretical and practical implications for research and for identifying impartial jurors at voir dire are discussed.
Skeem
Jennifer L
JL
Department of Psychology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154-5030, USA. skeem@unlv.edu
Louden
Jennifer Eno
JE
Evans
Jennee
J
D001290:Attitude; D003657:Decision Making; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007298:Insanity Defense; D007600:Judgment; D007603:Jurisprudence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011287:Prejudice; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012928:Social Desirability