Case Study #2

At a meeting of lawyers, a forensic psychologist was asked to present the result of her recent research on the decision-making process of juries. In one of her studies, she interviewed each member of a jury involved in a celebrated murder trial. In the study, the identity of each member of the jury was carefully concealed, but she did discuss the deliberative processes of subgroups. For example, the jury had among its members seven women, two African Americans, one foreign-born Italian American, an architect, and a truck driver, and the researcher referred to the voting and deliberative patterns of these groups. When questioned about the ethical propriety of revealing the findings, she said the names of the jurors had not been used and the jurors were now public figures whose opinions were no longer private.

1. What ethical concerns are raised here?