Mock trial jury decisions as a function of adolescent juror guilt and hostility

A fictitious court case involving child abuse was presented to 277 male adolescent jurors (138 college freshmen, means age = 19.25 years, 139 junior high school males, means age = 13.47 years) in an effort to determine if the tendency to deal harshly with alleged criminals is dependent upon certain personality characteristics of adolescent jurors. The Mosher Hostility Guilt Scale and the Siegel Manifest Hostility Scale were used to detect the presence of such trends. The results indicate that older adolescents attributed more of the responsibility for the crime to the defendant and administered less severe sentences than younger adolescent jurors. Hostility guilt and manifest hostility levels were not significantly related to attribution of responsibility for a criminal act; however, Ss scoring high in hostility guilt tended to give significantly shorter sentences, while Ss scoring high in manifest hostility tended to give longer sentences. Implications for adolescent peer practices are discussed.