Juror Decision‐making in Death Penalty Sentencing when Presented with Defendant's History of Child Abuse or Neglect

Abstract

Previous studies have found aggravating, mitigating, and null effects of defendant histories of abuse and neglect on punishment preferences in capital sentencing. Perceiving these defendants as more dangerous, jurors may be more likely to favor the death penalty when such evidence is presented. This is counter to the intuition that abuse or neglect reduces culpability, and therefore mitigates the severity of punishment. We investigated the effect of defendant childhood physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect on the probability of a prospective juror preferring the death penalty in an between-subject experimental design. Using vignettes and two large samples (students and jurors), defendant histories were found to mitigate the probability that the hypothetical defendant received the death penalty, with sexual abuse having the most salient effect. Further, the effects were conditioned by preference for the death penalty - larger mitigating effects were observed among individuals who favor the death penalty. These findings suggest that initial judgments of abuse and neglect are related to juror leniency, and further research on the interaction of jury instructions and defendant histories is needed. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Exploring public attitudes towards sex and grievous bodily harm offenders who have experienced childhood abuse

“…This suggests that for GBH and sexual offences, childhood maltreatment does not generate leniency from the public. This finding is interesting, and contradictory with previous research within the area that has shown public attitudes to either increase leniency or negativity when they are made aware of an offender's abusive childhood (e.g., Bell-Holleran et al, 2016;Butler & Jacquin, 2014). However, the present study did not specify the type of childhood abuse that the individual depicted in the vignette had experienced, only that was 'child abuse'.…”

“…Interestingly, public attitudes towards people who offend are mixed when participants become aware of an offenders' abusive childhood. Sometimes this information can lead to public leniency (Bell-Holleran et al, 2016;Haegerich & Bottoms, 2000;Najdowski et al, 2009;Stalans & Henry, 1994) whereas in other instances, this knowledge can increase negative attitudes (Butler & Jacquin, 2014;Fabian, 2003;. Attribution Theory can help to explain these findings (Crisp & Turner, 2014;Shaver, 1985;Weiner, 2006).…”

Nature, nurture, and capital punishment: How evidence of a genetic–environment interaction, future dangerousness, and deliberation affect sentencing decisions

“…Several studies have shown that a history of child maltreatment has mitigating effects on sentencing decisions (e.g., Barnett, Brodsky, & Davis, ; Bell Holleran, Vaughan, & Vandiver, ; Lynch & Haney, ; Tetterton & Brodsky, ). For example, Bell Holleran et al () varied evidence concerning the nature of a defendant's childhood abuse in a mock capital trial and found large reductions in the likelihood of a death sentence in cases involving a defendant who had been sexually abused as a child, and moderate reductions for defendants who had been physically abused or neglected.…”

Life or death: A qualitative examination of mitigating and aggravating evidence presented in capital trials

“…A study examining whether there was a difference between a history of neglect, physical abuse, or sexual abuse in militating a death sentence (Bell Holleran et al., 2016) found history of sexual abuse the most mitigating. Moderate mitigation was found for physical abuse, and minimal mitigation was found for neglect (Bell Holleran et al., 2016).…”