Prejudicial Effect
Definition
The risk that evidence will influence a fact-finder's decision through emotion, bias, or confusion rather than through rational inference. Courts balance prejudicial effect against probative value in admissibility rulings.
Related terms
- Defence Fallacy
- The converse error of inflating the importance of the RMP by arguing that, because many people in the population share the profile,...
- Likelihood Ratio (LR)
- The ratio of two conditional probabilities: the probability of the observed evidence given the prosecution's hypothesis (same source), divided by the probability...
- Probative Value
- The strength of the evidence's tendency to prove or disprove a fact in issue. High probative value means the evidence substantially changes...
- Prosecutor's Fallacy
- The error of treating the RMP (or its reciprocal) as the probability that the defendant is innocent, or as the probability that...
- Relevance
- The logical quality of evidence that makes a fact in dispute more or less probable. Under FRE Rule 401, evidence is relevant...
Explained in
- Probative Value and the Weight of EvidenceThe risk that evidence will influence a fact-finder's decision through emotion, bias, or confusion rather than through rational inference. Courts balance preju...