The purpose of this research is to clarify how understanding and acceptance of knowledge, which is necessary in order to judge the innocence or guilt of a defendant, influences decisions of lay judges. To make an appropriate judgment, lay judges are required to understand the Criminal Procedure Code. Furthermore, when judging the reliability of an eyewitness testimony, lay judges are required to understand the psychology related to eyewitness testimony research, and judge accordingly. However, previous research has shown that lay judges often do not fully understand this knowledge, and further, even if they have adequate knowledge, it is difficult for them to judge correspondingly. In this study, the influence of understanding and acceptance of the above knowledge on legal judgment of lay judges was ascertained through a mock trial experiment. In which participants of 42 university and graduate students were randomly assigned to teaching condition or non-teaching condition. And only the participants of teaching condition received a short teaching on the above knowledge. Results showed that even if understanding in-creased through teaching, acceptance did not necessarily increase (Hypothesis 1）. Further, there was no difference in the judgment of guilt or innocence after deliberation based on the presence or absence of teaching (Hypothesis 2). Moreover, understanding of the knowledge did not affect the judgment of guilt, but acceptance of the same influenced it (Hypothesis 3). This research concluded that it is necessary for lay judges to increase their acceptance of related knowledge in order to make an appropriate judgment.
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