In late December, eight teenage girls who had reportedly met online decided to meet in-person in downtown Toronto on a Saturday night. Three of the teens were 13 years old, three were 14 years old and two were 16 years old. The defendant’s developmental age (14 or 24 years old), chronological age (14 or 24 years old) and race (white, Black or Indigenous) were varied. We found that mock jurors’ responses varied according to developmental age: a developmentally 24-year-old was given more guilty verdicts than a developmentally 14-year-old. When the defendant had a developmental delay (the chronological age was higher than the developmental age), he was perceived as less guilty than a defendant whose chronological age matched his developmental age.
