Perceptions of Crime Threat and Criminal Justice Institutions: Effects on Capital Jurors’ Sentencing Decisions

Despite the importance of perceptions of crime threat and criminal justice institutions in the study of public punitiveness, less is known how they collectively impact capital jurors’ sentencing decisions. Using a vignette survey experiment, this study examined how these perceptions can shape mock jurors’ sentencing decisions in a capital trial. Death-qualified participants ( N = 744) from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk recommended a punishment for the defendant after reviewing a randomly assigned trial summary where aggravating characteristics and defendant race/ethnicity were varied. Mock jurors with heightened perceived crime threat were more likely to support punitive sentencing decisions. Although distrust about the crime control capabilities of criminal justice institutions did not directly influence sentencing decisions, its effect was significant through its associations with perceived crime threat. Findings highlight the important roles of jurors’ perceptions of crime threat and criminal justice institutions in shaping their decisions.