Brandy Hemmer, graduate psychology student, explains her research.
Brandy Hemmer, a psychology research graduate student, found that jury pools in Hamilton County, Tennessee, do not represent the community when compared to US Census data.
Hemmer will present her research in May at the 22nd annual Association of Psychological Science conference in Boston. Hemmer submitted her paper to the American Psychological Society and was selected to present a poster of her findings at their annual convention.
Hemmer’s research, under the direction of Psychology Professor Dr. David Ross, entitled Are Juries Representative? An Examination of the Representativeness of Jury Panels in Hamilton County, Tennessee, found that Hamilton County jury pools were made up of significantly more older white males with higher levels of education and income.
“We conducted surveys at the Hamilton County courthouse for three months. We had 375 people take the written survey,” said Hemmer.
Hemmer said the findings support the need for further research to examine why people do not show up, so that legal reforms can be implemented to help increase the representativeness of the jury panels.
“Part 2 of this study is being done to examine whether the people who are summoned, who show up, who are impaneled, and who actually serve are representative of the county according to the Census,” Hemmer said.
Another graduate research study entitled Predictors of Low Back and Lower Extremity Injury in NCAA Division I-FCS Football Players, tested athletes to determine which one’s were more likely to sustain low back and lower extremity sprains and strains, the most common injuries in football.
Jessica Frame, an athletic training graduate, under the supervision of Health and Human Performance Professor Gary Wilkerson, required 83 male football players to complete 4 different exercises and complete a survey as part of her research.
“Athletic trainers are usually the one’s you see run out on the field when someone is injured, but we need to conduct research to try and prevent those injuries from happening in the first place,” said Frame.
