deep(?) thought in the A.M.

[anotheranon]

Though I can't speak much about specifics with regards to my jury duty, I can say that I've seen one theme played out repeatedly, in all sorts of different situations: inability/unwillingness of people to see what's right in front of them.

In all manner of criminal cases presented to us, we hear from witnesses who lived with/knew well/were related to the accused who really, really don't know that crimes were being committed. Even though there are harsh penalties for lying under oath, I'm willing to accept that some might be, oh, stretching it a little. But you'd be surprised how many seem completely genuine in their ignorance.

Over and over again, we jurors cry "How could they not know?" I'm no psychologist, but IMHO it's rather simple: some things are just too painful, frightening, upsetting, or inconvenient to acknowledge. The ability of people to tune things out is some sort of self-defense mechanism.

I think we all do this to some degree, even over things that aren't illegal ("they don't have a drinking problem, it was just those few times", "so and so's not cheating, they just like to flirt", "it's just a flesh wound"). I know I've turned a blind eye in the past when it was too painful to look at a situation for what it was.

Maybe I'm right, or maybe these are just the ramblings of an undercaffinated and disgruntled juror :P What do you think?

Comments

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Love the icon - very appropriate, given the conversation at hand ;)

I've read extensively at the Crime Library and it is indeed fascinating. I do think that the Ted Bundys of the world are all the more terrifying because they do manage to put up an extremely normal - even charming - front to everyone else. True sociopaths really can pull the wool over just about anyone's eyes; I'm talking about the run of the mill folks who don't tell anyone where they're going, keep strange hours, appear to be hiding things - and still no one suspects. It still amazes me that in such situations red flags don't go off sometime.

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Like I said ... we'll look for ANY explanation for oddities in order to avoid thinking the worst. If we don't get one, we'll make up our own or construct a "blind spot." It's happened in my own family; my youngest sister denied her 2nd husband's verbal and emotional abuse of her two sons from her first marriage, even when it happened in front of other witnesses as well as herself ... she would say that she hadn't heard anything and that everybody else, including the boys, were making it all up. The scary part was that it was obvious that she honestly believed this. It was just as obvious that she was relieved when her ex won custody of the boys away from her, so she did have some deeply-buried awareness. If a person can will themselves to "not see/hear" something like this, then I have no trouble believing in that others, scarily, have selective perceptions as well.