The Effectiveness of Psychoeducation and Brief Treatments in the Aftermath of Sexual Assault

Vechiu, Catalina; Zimmermann, Martha

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-23645-8_30

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 53 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Because victim stereotypes are mistaken beliefs about how “real” rape complainants behave, education has broad policy support to help jurors rely less on stereotypes in their decisions (e.g., Haskell & Randall, 2019). Many of the unexpected behaviours that rape complainants’ display, like appearing unemotional, can be explained by the effects of trauma on the complainant (Vechiu & Zimmermann, 2019). This has led researchers and policymakers to suggest that educating decision-makers in the criminal justice system about the effects of trauma on rape complainants may help reduce reliance on stereotypes to evaluate the evidence given by rape complainants (e.g., Bluett-Boyd & Fileborn, 2014; Mayor of London, 2019).…”

Section: Barriers To Conviction In Rape Trialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of trauma education judicial instructions on decisions about complainant credibility in rape trials.

Nitschke¹,

McKimmie²,

Vanman³

2023

Psychology, Public Policy, and Law

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Judicial instructions are a practical, but not always effective, way of providing education to jurors to help them evaluate the evidence given by witnesses. In this research, we investigated whether jurors comprehended and applied common judicial instructions intended to help the jury accurately evaluate the evidence given by a rape complainant without being influenced by legally irrelevant stereotypes about the complainant's emotional demeanor. We hypothesized that a trauma education instruction would improve participants' trauma knowledge and reduce participants' reliance on stereotypes to evaluate the complainant's evidence compared with standard witness instructions given about evaluating the credibility of witnesses at trial. In Study 1 (N = 165), participants were asked to read one of three judicial instructions (trauma education, stereotype education, or standard) and their comprehension of the instruction was assessed. In Study 2 (N = 1085), participants were asked to decide a typical adult rape case in which the complainant was distressed or unemotional after receiving one of three types of judicial instructions (no specific witness instruction, standard witness, or trauma education instruction). Across both studies, we found that trauma education instructions improved participants' trauma knowledge. Unexpectedly, we found that both the standard witness and trauma education instructions reduced the extent to which participants were influenced by stereotypes in evaluating the complainant's credibility but reduced perceptions of the complainant's credibility. These findings highlight the need for ongoing evaluation of educational instructions to ensure that they operate as intended to help jurors make accurate decisions in criminal trials.

show abstract

Section: Barriers To Conviction In Rape Trialsmentioning

confidence: 99%