Child victim empathy mediates the influence of jurors’ sexual abuse experiences on child sexual abuse case judgments: Meta-analyses.

Abstract

Using meta-analyses, we examined the effect of mock jurors’ own sexual abuse experiences (i.e., whether they were victimized sexually as a child or adult or knew other victims) on child sexual abuse case judgments from 9 separate studies. We also examined the relation of abuse experience to jurors’ child victim empathy, testing our theory that empathy would mediate (explain) the influence of abuse experience on case judgments. Participants were 2,447 psychology students who assumed the role of mock juror, reported their empathy for child victims, considered a hypothetical case of child sexual abuse, and made case-related judgments (ratings of the victim’s credibility and the degree of guilt they assigned to the defendant). The sample included 404 participants who reported being victims of adult or child sexual abuse (17% of sample) and 961 participants who reported knowing other victims (39% of sample). Meta-analyses revealed that, compared with others, mock jurors with abuse experience (sexually abused themselves or knew other victims) had higher levels of child victim empathy and, in turn, perceived the victim to be more credible and assigned more guilt to defendants. These findings are important for advancing theory about the influence of sexual abuse experiences on jurors’ perceptions of sexual assault victims and decisions in child sexual abuse cases. The research also has practical implications for making jury selection fairer and more representative in cases involving sexual assault by including individuals with sexual abuse experience on juries.

The Impact of Experienced and Expressed Emotion on Legal Factfinding

“…Negative moral emotions like anger, disgust, and moral outrage, in particular, are correlated with more guilty and liability verdicts (Bright & Goodman-Delahunty 2006, Matsuo & Itoh 2017, Salerno 2017, Salerno & Peter-Hagene 2013, Salerno & Phalen 2019a) and harsher punishments (e.g., Georges et al 2013, Nuñez et al 2015. Positive moral emotions, such as sympathy or empathy for victims, are correlated with decreased convictions (Jones et al 2020), whereas empathy for defendants can increase convictions (Archer et al 1979, Haegerich & Bottoms 2000 Emotionally evocative evidence can elicit these moral emotions in jurors, which are, in turn, associated with harsher verdicts and punishment. These experiments most commonly test the impact of gruesome photographs of victims and victim impact statements (VIS) from victims or their families (Bandes & Salerno 2014, Phalen et al 2020, Salerno & Bottoms 2009.…”

“It is all her fault”: psychosocial correlates of the negative attitudes towards rape victims among the general population of Pakistan

“…It is on the basis of such ideas that a large number of individuals reject the prevalence of rape or sexual victimization being a widespread problem (Jaffe et al, 2021). Moreover, to assess sexual victimization, rape victim empathy has drawn extensive interest in terms of which it has been found that rape victim responsibility is negatively associated with rape victim empathy for both male and females (Jones et al, 2020). Rape victim responsibility has been associated negatively with higher levels of rape victim empathy and is also indicative of the personal experience of individuals regarding a rape situation (Beck & Rose, 2021).…”

White Americans' blame attributions and empathy towards Black victims of police violence: How pejorative stereotypes ‘engulf the field’

“…Most importantly, such heightened victim blame was negatively associated with the victim‐directed empathic responding that plays such a critical role in legal decision‐making processes. Specifically, victim‐directed empathy tends to predict important legal outcomes such as greater support to punish the harm‐doer (Clements et al., 2006; Deitz et al., 1982; Jones et al., 2020) and support for victim compensation (Liu et al., 2017; Urbanska et al., 2019). From a broader standpoint, the findings could also have implications for whether individuals would support policies that favour reparations for Black Americans.…”

“…We examined empathy as our outcome of interest for two main reasons. First, victim‐directed empathy (Deitz et al., 1982; Jones et al., 2020) tends to be linked to important legal outcomes such as greater support for invoking legal punishments for the harm‐doer. Second, there is growing evidence that recognition of third‐party (i.e.…”