Home > Law > DePaul Law Review > Vol. 75 > Iss. 2
Abstract
Juries are supposed to represent the views of their community,
but securing representative bodies will not meet fair cross-section
aims if deliberations fail to actually produce contributions from a
wide variety of voices. This Essay develops the concept of
“distributed voice,” or the ability of a jury to spread out talk across
more jurors. Analyses examine what factors predict a jury’s
likelihood of producing more egalitarian distributions of speaking
turns and of words spoken. Data from actual deliberations of fifty
civil juries demonstrate that talk patterns on juries are more widely
distributed when there is a greater diversity of views on the jury
about the plaintiff and when the average age of the juror members
is younger. In addition, as juries included higher proportions of
women and of people who work in professional or managerial
occupations, they also exhibited greater equality; but these effects
were less consistent. Foreperson behavior was not a strong
predictor of distributed voice when models accounted for other
factors. Future work should continue to identify how juries achieve
more egalitarianism in talk.
Recommended Citation
Mary R. Rose & Shari S. Diamond,
"Distributed Voice" During Deliberations: What Real Juries Tell Us,
75
DePaul L. Rev.
(2026).
Available at:
https://via.library.depaul.edu/law-review/vol75/iss2/16
