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info@publiceye.com.au |
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Through the streamlining of the registration process online, we improved attendance rates, increased attendee satisfaction and improved response rates to our event feedback requests. We were able to get our message to our audience quickly and efficiently, while tracking responses in real time. 
Scott Millington, Lexmark |
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The University of New South Wales
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The jury’s out on DNA evidence
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About The Project
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The use of DNA evidence in Australian courts has been common for several years. However, there is still debate about the fairness of decisions made based on DNA evidence due to possible juror misconceptions and misunderstandings of such evidence.
To help assess jury understanding of DNA evidence and how it impacts verdicts in jury trials, the Australian Criminology Research Council funded an innovative research project conducted by a team of researchers at UNSW.
The Challenge
With strict budgets, tight timeframes and a comprehensive set of objectives, this project required careful management to be a success.
To achieve meaningful findings, the research required input from thousands of jury-eligible citizens across Australia. Tight legislation makes it difficult to study juries sitting in real trials, and meeting participants one-on-one around the country was not feasible given the timeframes and financial limitations.
That’s why the research team, led by Professor of Forensic Psychology, Jane Goodman-Delahunty, decided to look into online methodologies.
 We determined that smart use of the internet would give us access to a wide range of respondents, and meet our research objective quickly and cost-effectively.
Professor Goodman-Delahunty, Professor of Forensic Psychology, UNSW “We determined that smart use of the internet would give us access to a wide range of respondents, and meet our research objective quickly and cost-effectively,” she said. Australians outstrip almost all other nations in terms of internet use, making web-based data collection a very viable option.
However, simply creating an online survey was not all that was required.
“More so than many commercial surveys, academic research has strict standards in terms of sample selection, bias control, privacy, informed consent, research ethics, statistical significance and integrity of the data captured.
“We also needed to select a carefully screened group that was representative of the Australian jury-eligible population in terms of age, gender, education, and location. And, being publicly funded, budgets and outcomes are very tightly controlled.”
Having used their services successfully on previous academic research projects, the research team engaged Webmart to partner with them to deliver the solution.
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The Solution |
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Through their existing networks, Webmart began by approaching and screening some 23,000 jury-eligible individuals in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria via email.
Of this group, 3,611 people were quizzed on their pre-trial DNA knowledge using an online multiple-choice questionnaire run on Webmart’s proprietary online research system called PUBLICeye®.
Following stage one, 470 individuals were then invited to ‘attend’ a mock trial which was presented online via a streaming video. All the virtual jurors watched a 35-minute simulated trial that had been developed based on an actual homicide case involving DNA evidence.
One group was shown an educational DNA multimedia tutorial by a forensic expert, another group was played an audio presentation of the same information, and a third group was simply told that the forensic tests were inconclusive, i.e., no DNA background information was provided.
“Webmart’s system was able to handle multimedia and deliver it online as part of the survey. Travelling around the country with video presentations or staging live re-enactments to hundreds of people is clearly cost and time prohibitive,” added Professor Goodman-Delahunty.
Simple and affordable, Webmart’s solution offers a range of features and benefits:
- Fully-hosted and managed by Webmart requiring no technical resources
- A user-friendly survey that was personalised based on the respondents’ group
- Automated data collection and storage meant no time was wasted collating and re-keying data as with traditional pencil-and paper research
- Detailed reports were generated with colour graphs and clear tables for simple analysis
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Webmart worked with us to deliver the project from end-to-end. They had the people, experience and technology to meet our goals. Throughout the project they provided regular updates and consultation. It was like having extra team members on our staff.
Professor Goodman-Delahunty, Professor of Forensic Psychology, UNSW The Results
The project was all completed within a few short weeks, on time and on budget. Professor Goodman-Delahunty was impressed with the level of service and expertise delivered by the Webmart team.
“Webmart worked with us to deliver the project from end-to-end. They had the people, experience and technology to meet our goals. Throughout the project they provided regular updates and consultation. It was like having extra team members on our staff."
“When I need research technology in the future I won’t hesitate to talk to Webmart. They are a professional and dedicated team that worked creatively to help meet our strict research requirements and budgets.”
The published findings will provide valuable insight into the powerful role DNA evidence plays in conviction rates, show how multimedia tutorials can help educate jurors and identify specific gaps in the DNA knowledge of jury eligible citizens.
“The ultimate goal of the research is to generate data that can help promote more consistent, fair and just jury verdicts in civil and criminal cases involving DNA evidence. This is critically important in the functioning of the justice system,” concluded the Professor
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