Discussion: The Role of Bias

12/09/2020

The Role of Bias

Week 2 Discussion

Bias is defined by Shiraev & Levy (2017) as a prejudicial inclination or predisposition that

inhibits, deters, or prevents impartial judgment. At some point during a case, it may be

improbable for anyone (e.g. jury, judge, lawyers, bystanders) that knows information about the

case to remain impartial and not let their own personals judgments cloud their decision or actions

regarding the case. To elucidate, being a bystander that is not involved in the case about to be

discussed the more information I have read about the case has made it more and more difficult

for me to remain impartial and unbiased. There is no question that I have sympathy for those

involved in the case that was unharmed and I feel devastated for those that lost their lives but

certain circumstances within the case leave me questioning those involved and the true intentions

behind the crime. To argue that point further, a 34-year-old man involved in the crime is being

accused of murdering two of his children through decapitation, keeping their bodies for five days

while occasionally showing his two other children that were unharmed the dead bodies of their

siblings (Winton & Hamilton, 2020). Not to mention, the mother of the children was also in the

house unharmed. When the father decapitated his two older children the two younger siblings

and the mother were instead the home while the murders took place. Why were the two eldest

children murdered in such a vile manner but the two youngest who were also inside the home at

the time of the crime were unharmed? Why was the mother of the children unharmed? What was

the mother of the children doing while the father was killing their children? Did she not hear

them scream? Was there not a struggle? The number of questions this case produces and the lack

of answers that it supplies makes it improbable, at least for me, to remain impartial and unbiased.

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Most of the bias that I have for the case discussed above falls in the category of offender

blaming or having a bias towards the offender. Offender blaming, as illustrated by Karmen

(2020) is the action of removing the burden of responsibility from the victim and returns the

responsibility of the crime entirely onto the offender. This is because the man involved in the

crime elected to murder just two of his children. Why only two? If he were going to murder half

of his children, why would he not murder his other children? What happened with the two eldest

children that he felt the need to murder them? Another reason my bias falls in the category of

offender blaming is for five days this man kept his children’s decapitated bodies inside his home;

with his wife; with his two other children; living as if he did not murder his oldest children. It is

almost as if he had this crime planned out. I do not understand how if he just snapped one day

because of all of the co-vid restrictions and quarantining that has been going on this year how he

could only snap and murder two of the five living in the home.

Unfortunately, a small portion of my bias does fall within the realm of victim-blaming. To

explain, victim-blaming is the argument that specific victims bear some responsibility for the

crime that took place along with the offender (Karmen, 2020). How was the mother of the

children unharmed? Where was the mother of the children as the murders took place? Did she

attempt to protect and save her children? When the murders were taking place why did the

mother or the younger siblings not call the authorities or run to a neighbor for help? It would not

have been possible for this man to murder these two children and keep the other three individuals

inside the home. If the mother would have attempted to save or protect her children or ask for

help at the first sign of alarming actions and mannerisms from her husband, it is possible that the

crime would have never taken place and those children would have never lost their lives. I am

not someone who condones victim-blaming but certain cases, certain people, and certain aspects

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make an individual like myself question the intentions of the ‘victims’ within the case. Their

actions or lack thereof are a playing factor in the crime whether they are aware of it or not.

Depending on the extremeness of the crime that takes place depends on how much media

coverage happens and how much information is then released about the offender, victims, and

the impending court case which then rolls into bias or the possibility of jury bias. The more

media coverage there is the more probability of bias occurs. Any information that I have learned

about this case has come from some form of media coverage. For instance, the first time I heard

of this case was on my ‘Daily Mail’ news app within a social media app. This case was vile

enough to make it on a worldwide app that thousands of millions of individuals use each day. At

this point creating a jury panel of individuals that have not heard or read about this case in some

aspect is almost impossible. To argue this point further, a jury panel free of bias regarding a high-

profile case that has had national media coverage such as the one discussed is impractical unless

those individuals do not have access to smartphones, television, radio, or the internet. Essentially,

to elevate bias for a case you have to elevate any means of information about the case through

media coverage. Any information about the case or crime needs to come from evidence, not from

media coverage that is based on someone else’s opinion on the crime itself.

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References

Karmen, A. (2020). Crime Victims: an introduction to victimology (10th ed.). Cengage Learning.

Shiraev, E. B., & Levy, D. A. (2017). Cross-Cultural Psychology: Critical Thinking and

Contemporary Applications (6th ed.). Routledge.

Winton, R., & Hamilton, M. (2020, December 9). Father decapitated two children, forced other

kids to view bodies over five days, prosecutors allege. Los Angeles Times.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-12-09/lancaster-father-charged-

decapitations-son-daughter.

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