Racial Composition of Couples in Battered Spouse Syndrome Cases: A Look at Juror Perceptions and Decisions

Mossière, Annik; Maeder, Evelyn M.; Pica, Emily

doi:10.1177/0886260516632355

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…In summary, participants rate the situations according to stereotypical gender roles and thus show more concern for the female than the male victims, and consider violent situations with male perpetrators more severe than violent situations with female perpetrators (Hammock et al, 2017;Russell et al, 2016;Scarduzio et al, 2017). The results were also consistent with studies where mock juries were asked to judge cases of IPV, in which the jurors were more keen on a guilty verdict when the perpetrator was male and the victim female (Mossière et al, 2018;Stanziani et al, 2018). It has been suggested that a reason for this is the perpetrator's ability to arouse fear of injury in the victim, which affects how the severity of the situation is perceived.…”

Section: Perceptual Differences and Communication Of Ipvsupporting

confidence: 77%

“…Several factors may contribute to the above-mentioned perceptual differences in calibration, accuracy and gender, which might affect the legal process and potentially the verdict. These include offenders' potentially skewed narrative depending on the offender's gender (Hammock et al, 2017;Russell et al, 2016;Savage et al, 2017;Sylaska & Walters, 2014) and the gender of the recipient of the narrative such as law enforcement officials, jury members, or judges (Alfredsson et al, 2016;Berkel et al, 2004;Gover et al, 2011;Hine & Murphy, 2017;Mossière et al, 2018;Strömwall et al, 2014).…”

Section: The Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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How bad is bad? Perceptual differences in the communication of severity in intimate partner violence

Sikström

Dahl²

2023

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

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Accurate communication of the severity of violence in intimate relations is essential for the appropriate evaluation of offenders and victims in contexts such as court trials, custody cases, and the continuation of relationships. Using a new paradigm, this study quantifies discrepancies in how the severity of violence is communicated in texts written by offenders, victims, and bystanders who witness violence. The study was conducted in two phases, where participants were randomly sampled from the same population to participate in either Phase 1 or Phase 2. In the first Phase, witnesses (narrators) provided nine narratives about self-experienced intimate partner violence and rated the violence’s severity; then in the second Phase non-witnesses (recipients) read all the narratives and rated the severity of the violence. Four types of perceptual differences (calibration, accuracy, gender, and role perceptual differences) were identified when rating the severity of three types of violence (psychological, physical, and sexual) as communicated by three types of witnesses (victims, offenders, and bystanders) of violence in heterosexual, romantic relationships. Several novel findings were made related to a strong perceptual difference in calibration, i.e., a tendency for the recipient to rate the violence more severely than the narrator, where this effect was mainly found for victims and bystanders, but not for offenders. Also, the calibration effect was largely seen in the sexual and physical, but not psychological, narratives. The recipients’ accuracy was considerably lower for psychological rather than sexual violence. Finally, the validity of the method was confirmed by replicating earlier findings on perceptual differences in roles where witnesses rated violence more severely than victims or offenders and women were rated more severely than men, which was especially true for male raters. These results suggest systematic perceptual differences in severity ratings and may have substantial implications for victims and offenders in real-life settings. These findings may potentially be used to ameliorate the negative effects of perceptual differences.

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Section: Perceptual Differences and Communication Of Ipvsupporting

confidence: 77%

Section: The Current Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

How bad is bad? Perceptual differences in the communication of severity in intimate partner violence

Sikström

Dahl²

2023

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

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“…Research suggests the importance of examining the joint effects of age, gender, and race on sentencing outcomes—sentencing is particularly harsh when defendants are young males who are Black or Hispanic (Doerner & Demuth, 2010). Mossière et al’s (2018) findings point to the importance of examining race in the context of a battered spouse syndrome case. Specifically, defendant race (but not the couple’s racial composition) mattered, with jurors rating the male victim as more responsible than the female defendant for the crime when the defendant was Black (vs. White).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Gender, Generations, and Guilt: Defendant Gender and Age Affect Jurors’ Decisions and Perceptions in an Intimate Partner Homicide Trial

Ruva,

Smith,

Sykes

2023

J Interpers Violence

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Using the context of an intimate partner homicide trial, the study explored the effects of defendant gender and age on mock-jurors’ verdicts, sentences, and culpability ratings—and whether defendant credibility and juror anger mediate these effects. The study used a 2 (Defendant Gender: male vs. female) × 3 (Defendant Age: 25, 45, or 65 years) between-subjects design. Participants ( N = 513 community members) completed the experiment online. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the six Defendant Gender × Age Conditions. Participants read the trial transcripts that included the age and gender manipulations, provided verdicts and sentences, and completed the following measures: culpability, anger, credibility, and manipulation checks. Consistent with our hypotheses mock-jurors were more likely to find the male defendant guilty and give him longer sentences than the female defendant. Additionally, when the defendant was male (vs. female) mock-jurors provided higher anger ratings and rated the defendant as more culpable in the victim’s death. Also consistent with our hypotheses, mock-jurors were more likely to find the youngest defendant guilty and view him as more culpable and less credible than the oldest defendant. The mechanisms responsible for jurors’ biased decisions varied as a function of the extra-legal variable (defendant gender vs. age). The defendant age effect was mediated by defendant credibility and the gender effect by juror anger. A defendant’s right to a fair trial is dependent on a court’s ability to limit extra-legal variables from influencing jurors’ decisions. Understanding the mechanism responsible for such bias is required before the courts can effectively remedy bias.

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“…The VR videos are shot 10 Previous experimental research that investigated the impact of defendant characteristics such as race and mental illness on trial verdicts provided mock trial transcripts to be read by the evaluators. The race of the victim or defendant is manipulated using photographs and names (Mossiere, Maeder and Pica 2018;Maeder, Mossiere and Cheung 2012), or evaluators were given vignettes that described the offender and the circumstances of the case (Mercado, Bornstein and Schopp 2006). Some studies showed videos of mock trials where the trial conditions, such as eyewitness evidence, has been manipulated by the experimenters (Jones et al 2017).…”

Section: General Idea and The Contribution Of The Papermentioning

confidence: 99%

Racial Bias and In-group Bias in Judicial Decisions: Evidence from Virtual Reality Courtrooms

Bielen

Marneffe

Mocan

2018

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We shot videos of criminal trials using 3D Virtual Reality (VR) technology, prosecuted by actual prosecutors and defended by actual defense attorneys in an actual courtroom. This is the first paper that utilizes VR technology in a non-computer animated setting, which allows us to replace white defendants in the courtroom with individuals who have Middle Eastern or North African descent in a real-life environment. We alter only the race of the defendants in these trials, holding all activity in the courtroom constant, creating arguably perfect counterfactuals (http:// proficient.ninja/splitscreen/). Law students, economics students, practicing lawyers and judges are randomly assigned to watch with VR headsets, the trials that differed only in defendants' race. Background information obtained from the evaluators allowed us to identify their cultural heritage. Evaluators made decisions on guilt/innocence in these burglary and assault cases, as well as prison sentence length and fine in accordance with the guidelines provided by the relevant law. There is evidence that evaluators are harsher towards defendants of their own race during the guilt-innocence decision. In the sentencing phase, we find in-group bias in the opposite direction: evaluators are more lenient towards defendants of their own race. This is the first paper that identifies such opposing effects of bias within the same decision sequence. Regarding overall racial bias, we document that minorities are more likely to get convicted, and that they are given stiffer punishment, conditional on conviction. We find only scant evidence that the concerns of the evaluators about terrorism, about immigration, or their trust in the judiciary or the police have an impact on their judicial decisions, suggesting that the source of the bias may be deep-rooted. Merging a small sample of judges and prosecutors with the sample of lawyers provides results that are very similar to those obtained from the analysis of lawyers.

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Racial Composition of Couples in Battered Spouse Syndrome Cases: A Look at Juror Perceptions and Decisions

Cited by 9 publications

References 66 publications

How bad is bad? Perceptual differences in the communication of severity in intimate partner violence

How bad is bad? Perceptual differences in the communication of severity in intimate partner violence

Gender, Generations, and Guilt: Defendant Gender and Age Affect Jurors’ Decisions and Perceptions in an Intimate Partner Homicide Trial

Racial Bias and In-group Bias in Judicial Decisions: Evidence from Virtual Reality Courtrooms

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