Race in the Jury Box: Affirmative Action in Jury Selection (Suny Series in New Directions in Crime and Justice Studies)
by Hiroshi Fukurai, Richard Krooth
Category: Criminal procedure

Discusses race-conscious jury selection and highlights strategies for achieving racially mixed juries. Race in the Jury Box focuses on the racially unrepresentative jury as one of the remaining barriers to racial equality and a recurring source of controversy in American life. Because members of minority groups remain underrepresented on juries, various communities have tried race-conscious jury selection, termed "affirmative jury selection." The authors argue that affirmative jury selection can insure fairness, verdict legitimization, and public confidence in the justice system. This book offers a critical analysis and systematic examination of possible applications of race-based jury selection, examining the public perception of these measures and their constitutionality. The authors make use of court cases, their own experiences as jury consultants, and jury research, as well as statistical surveys and analysis. The work concludes with the presentation of four strategies for affirmative jury selection. “Not only do the authors point out (and address) the lack of research concerning affirmative jury selection procedures, but they also unabashedly call for immediate consideration and necessity of reform.” — Criminal Justice Review “…Race in the Jury Box is an impressively argued book that should find a place on the bookshelf of anyone concerned with the American jury and with racial justice in America today. Fukurai and Krooth are among the most innovative and creative jury researchers today; … [they] not only advance new ideas, but also provide evidence that these ideas can work.” — Justice System Journal "This is a one-of-a-kind book. In addition to its focus on race, its findings have direct policy relevance. It tackles a very important set of issues within the legal/jurisprudence and social science literatures and an important public policy debate—the causes and consequences of racial exclusion in juries and possible remedies for the problem." — Darnell F. Hawkins, editor of Ethnicity, Race, and Crime: Perspectives Across Time and Place