Meredith Allison

The Impact of Illegal Alibi Activities, Corroborator Involvement and Corroborator Certainty on Mock Juror Perceptions

Undergraduate mock jurors (N = 360) received a mock police report and trial in which a suspect was accused of rape. The suspect offered one of three alibis: a sexually salacious and illegal alibi, a non-sexually salacious and illegal alibi, and a control condition. The corroborator either helped or observed him in his illegal alibi activities and was either 100 or 80% sure she was with him that night. Alibi salaciousness did not significantly affect alibi believability although it had a significant impact on views of the defendants and corroborators characters, corroborator believability, and verdict certainty. The non-sexually salacious alibi generally led to higher ratings on these measures in comparison with the control condition. Corroborator certainty had significant effects on perceptions of the corroborator.

Insights for academic developers from three international undergraduate research program resources

Characteristics of excellence in undergraduate research (COEUR), edited by Nancy Hensel, Washington, DC, The Council on Undergraduate Research, 2012, 66 pp., http://www.cur.org/ assets/1/23/COEUR_final.pdf Developing research-based curricula in college-based higher education, by Mick Healey, Alan Jenkins, and John Lea, Heslington, UK, The Higher Education Academy, 2014, 87 pp., https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/resources/developing_research-based_curricula_ in_cbhe_14.pdf Undergraduate research in Australia, initiated by Angela Brew, n.d., http://www.mq.edu.au/ lih/altc/ug_research/index.htm