CRIME AND PREJUDICE - THE USE OF CHARACTER EVIDENCE IN CRIMINALS TRIALS

The task of juries is to dispense ex post justice. While justice requi res convicting the guilty and acquitting the innocent, the evidence us ually cannot distinguish with certainty. We argue that the jury will b e more lenient in acquittals than is optimal for deterring crime whene ver its subjective cost of wrongful convictions is at least as high as its subjective cost of wrongful acquittals. However if the jury is pr ejudiced against habitual criminals, its subjective cost of wrongful c onvictions will be relatively low, and then the jury may impede deterr ence by its punitiveness rather than by its lenience. We investigate w hether restricting character evidence can solve this problem.