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Chicago Jury Project

The Chicago Jury Project was a large-scale social science research initiative in the 1950s. This entry provides a descriptive portrait of the project, followed by a brief summary of the primary studies associated with it, and then a discussion of the project's legacy and its impact on the field of psychology and law. In essence, the Chicago Jury Project was a groundbreaking scientific endeavor that employed a variety of social science methods and anticipated a host of current research streams. It remains an impressive accomplishment and can fairly be said to represent the inaugural event in the scientific study of jury decision making.

Overview

The Chicago Jury Project, also known as the American Juries Project, was conceived as an innovative effort to study the American legal system using behavioral science methods. Initiated in 1953 with funding from a $400,000 grant from the Ford Foundation, the project was housed at the University of Chicago. A variety of research studies were undertaken with the aid of project funding, not all of which were concerned with juries (e.g., arbitration). The project was led primarily by three individuals: Harry Kalven (a law professor), Hans Zeisel (a sociologist, statistician, and law professor), and Fred Strodtbeck (a social psychologist), although more than 20 other individuals were affiliated with the project, including Dale Broeder and Rita James Simon. The initial funding was spent by 1956, which triggered a review of project activities and findings by the Ford Foundation. A second round of funding from Ford enabled some arms of the project (most notably the work on juries) to continue until 1959, at which point active data collection ceased. A bibliography published in 1966 listed more than 60 journal articles published by researchers associated with the project. In-depth summaries of selected project initiatives were subsequently published in three book-length volumes titled Delay in the Court (1959), The American Jury (1966), and The American Jury: The Defense of Insanity (1967). The physical records of the project are currently held in 10 boxes at the Special Collections Research Center at the University of Chicago's Law School.

Few social science research projects receive public attention, and even fewer achieve any that is sustained, but the Chicago Jury Project actually caused something of a national scandal at one point in its existence. One early initiative involved audiotaping the deliberations of five civil jury trials in the federal district court in Wichita, Kansas. Although this was done with the assent of the trial judge and counsel for both sides, the jurors were unaware that their discussion was being recorded. When this became public knowledge in the summer of 1955, uproar ensued. The methodology was publicly censured by the Attorney General of the United States, a special hearing was initiated by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and more than 30 jurisdictions subsequently enacted statutes prohibiting the direct observation or recording of jury deliberations.

Project Studies and Results

As noted above, the Chicago Jury Project consisted of a number of different research initiatives involving several major methodological strategies: (a) analysis of archival data on court system functioning, (b) surveys, (c) intensive interviews with attorneys and jurors, and (d) experimental research with mock juries. This section briefly summarizes the project activities and findings within each methodological domain.

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