Judging jury service: Results of the North Carolina administrative office of the courts juror survey

This study examined venirepersons' and jurors' levels of satisfaction with jury service. Surveys were distributed to all persons who reported for stat e court jury service during two one-week periods in each North Carolina cou nty. Questions concerned satisfaction with various aspects of jury service, the effects of service, hardships experienced, details of and reactions to cases heard, and basic demographic information. Responses were obtained fr om 82 of the 100 counties and 4,654 venirepersons (of whom 1,478 served as jurors). Consistent with prior research on juror experiences, results gener ally revealed high levels of satisfaction and positive opinions about vario us aspects of jury service. Service did not influence opinions about the co urts for most respondents, and those whose opinions changed tended to becom e more positive about jury service. Suggestions for future research emphasi ze giving higher priority to publishing unpublished research on jury experi ence, explaining the high satisfaction levels observed in samples of jurors , and examining the impact of trial reform on juror satisfaction levels. Co pyright (C) 2001 John Whey & Sons, Ltd.