Here, Vidmar (law & psychology, Duke Univ.) and Hans (law, Cornell Univ.)-coauthors of Judging the Jury-"examine what juries do and what research tells us about their performance." Chapters cover the history of juries, jury selection, tasks of the jury, judging evidence, judging criminal responsibility and insanity, the death penalty, and civil liability and include plentiful references to historical and contemporary cases as well as discussion of available research studies. These studies include interesting comparisons of judge and jury verdicts, how juries understand the law, how jurors evaluate evidence, the role of race in jury decision making, and the impact of the death-qualification process in capital cases. Hundreds of books have been written on juries, e.g., Randolph N. Jonakait's The American Jury System, but the strength of this book is its topic-by-topic presentation of research studies. Well suited to ambitious undergraduates and scholars, it is essential for law libraries and academic libraries with strong law, criminal justice, public policy, and social sciences collections.-Mary Jane Brustman, SUNY at Albany Libs. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.