A critique of the experimental study of juror decision-making: challenges and recommendations

As researchers are not allowed into the deliberation room, they commonly employ experiments so that they can study the decision-making of jurors/juries. However, despite the strengths of the experimental method, there are some limitations. For example, mock juror/jury experiments lack consequentiality and many experiments focussed on juror decision-making do not use appropriate materials and/or investigate the process of deliberations. In this chapter, the experimental method of juror research will be discussed, alongside its limitations, and recommendations (such as triangulating research results through various research methods) will be made to improve research and its generalisability to the courtroom.