Juror Decision-Making in Context

The United States criminal justice system was designed to be one of fairness, where everyone is equal in the eyes of the law. However, that does not seem to be case, and one instance of this is how a defendant’s gender identity influences juror decision. Much literature exists on juror reaction to the cisgender binary, yet there is a gap in research on how juries react to transgender defendants and how pretrial media exposure interacts with this effect. This study aims to answer this question, as well as look into the interaction of pretrial publicity on juror decision when still accounting for a transgender gender identity. Survey participants were randomly assigned to one of eight total conditions of an experimental survey about a fictitious court case, with the axes of variation being gender identity—cisgender male/female and transgender male/female—and the presence of pretrial publicity. Unfortunately, the final sample size was small (N=158), and no statistically significant results were found. However, the findings suggest that transgender defendants may be disadvantaged in the courtroom. Future research should be carried out with a larger sample size to further explore these issues.