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GCSE Citizenship Studies · key term
A citizen selected to sit on a jury, listen to the evidence in a trial and help decide whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty.
Used by AQA and Edexcel
Paper 2
Revise: Roles Undertaken by Citizens within the Legal SystemA juror is a citizen selected to help decide the outcome of a trial. For Crown Court jury service, citizens are randomly selected from the electoral register. This brings ordinary members of the public into decisions about serious criminal accusations.
Paper 1, Paper 2
A member of the public selected to hear trial evidence and help decide whether a defendant is guilty or not guilty.
Explain why each role matters: for example, witnesses help establish facts, while jurors use the evidence to reach a verdict.
Do not confuse a juror’s verdict with sentencing, or a Police and Crime Commissioner’s oversight with frontline policing.
In a trial with a jury, jurors decide guilt and the judge decides the sentence if the defendant is convicted. Magistrates can decide both guilt and sentence in cases they hear.
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Ordinary citizens also take part, including as jurors and magistrates.
