Good afternoon, members of the committee. Thank you very much for inviting me here today to discuss the very important topic of juror mental health.
I'm a fourth year Ph.D. candidate in the department of Psychiatry at McGill University, and for the last nine years I have been studying the devastating effects of trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder under Dr. Alain Brunet's supervision in his laboratory on psychological trauma at the Douglas research centre.
I am here today with my colleague Marie-Eve Leclerc, who is a current Ph.D. student in the school of psychology at the University of Ottawa, a former master's student with Dr. Brunet in the department of psychiatry at McGill, and co-author on the research I'll be presenting today.
In September 2014, the trial of Luka Magnotta, a man who murdered Concordia University student Lin Jun in spring 2012, began. That same month my supervisor Dr. Brunet expressed his concerns in an interview about the increased risk for PTSD among the jurors, the lawyers, the expert witnesses, and other court staff who might be present and witness violent material during Magnotta's trial. This marked the beginning of Dr. Brunet's interest in examining the potentially traumatizing effects of jury duty.
An important caveat is that, about a year prior, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders was published. In it the definition of what constitutes a traumatic event was broadened and now includes individuals who are indirectly but repeatedly exposed to violent materials through photographs and videos, typically in the course of their professional duty. This was not included in prior versions of the DSM, and what this means is that the American Psychiatric Association now recognizes that any individual who is repeatedly exposed to violent and graphic material, such as a juror, can be at risk for developing post-traumatic stress disorder.
With the idea of building a research study investigating this question, Dr. Brunet asked me to write a paper that systematically reviewed the scientific literature on juror mental health, the results of which were published in 2016 in the Journal of Criminal Justice.
In total, we located 14 studies published since 1985 that examined post-traumatic stress symptoms as a result of jury duty. This research revealed that as many as 50% of the jurors will experience moderate to severe PTSD symptoms that could benefit from clinical intervention. Up to 12% of these jurors might be diagnosed with PTSD right after the trial, which can persist in some individuals for months and maybe even years.
The most consistently reported symptoms across the studies we reviewed include intrusive thoughts, memories, and nightmares about what they heard or what they saw; difficulty sleeping and insomnia; a lack of appetite; and feeling emotionally numb and disconnected from their surroundings and loved ones and hyper-vigilant within their surroundings—so feeling constantly on guard and afraid. Other research demonstrates high rates of depression and anxiety, in addition to substance use problems, which often complicate the PTSD profile.
Our review also highlights several sources of stress among jurors, the most prominent being factors related to the deliberations. These include deciding on a verdict, fears of making the wrong decision, tension among jurors, and being isolated from familiar support networks.
The nature of the trial was associated with severity of pathology across the studies, with 30% to 50% of jurors reporting that gruesome evidence was at least moderately stressful.
Jurors on criminal trials involving crimes against a person consistently report more severe PTSD symptoms and are significantly more likely to be diagnosed with probable PTSD and major depression, compared to those who sit either on non-criminal trials or on criminal trials that involve crimes that aren't committed against a person, such as burglaries or credit card fraud.
Other research suggests that the length of the trial in combination with the presentation of graphic evidence carries the highest risk for PTSD among jurors.
The literature also highlights that jurors with a history of mental health disorders, especially those who are faced with a case that is relevant to their own personal and prior trauma, are at increased risk for PTSD following their service.
Although the research to date supports the idea that the risk for PTSD might be highest among jurors who sit on high-profile trials involving violent crimes against a person, the strength of our findings should be considered in light of several methodological limitations, specifically regarding how trauma and PTSD are measured and diagnosed across and between studies, for example.
I am happy to elaborate on these issues during the question period.
For now, I'll turn it over to my colleague, Marie-Eve Leclerc, who is here today to offer some recommendations based on our work, as well as to answer any questions regarding her experience with attempting to conduct a study on PTSD among former jurors.