Undergraduate Research Conference Proceedings

In the US court system, interpreters are provided for anybody who does not speak English sufficiently proficiently to ease language difficulty and equalize opportunity under the law. Despite that precaution, jurors still hear the original language being translated, which could create extrajudicial biases in court cases. Thus far, there has been limited literature on whether language creates a juror bias and whether one language creates more bias than another. These studies have also been limited in scope and conflicted in findings, with some finding evidence of bias while others not. In order to fill this gap, I designed a pilot study to model for a larger scale study if biases were found. This included recording testimony for a fake court case with dubbed voices to maintain accuracy. I then created a survey asking for ratings of guilt, understanding, credibility, and reasoning which I sent out to a representative sample of the US residents. My findings show that while defendant language does not significantly impact the outcome of a clearly undisputed trial, it may influence the outcome in a highly contested one.