Department of Psychology, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX 77843-4235, U.S.A.
Behav Sci Law. 2010 Nov-Dec;28(6):878-91. doi: 10.1002/bsl.958. Epub 2010 Sep 7.
Despite mixed empirical evidence regarding the ability of the Psychopathy Checklist - Revised (PCL-R) to predict violence among incarcerated inmates, it continues to be used to address such questions, even in the context of capital cases. The purpose of this study was to examine if the PCL-R has a prejudicial effect on mock jury members during the sentencing phase of a capital murder trial. Results indicated that participants were more likely to sentence the defendant to death when the defendant exhibited a high likelihood to commit future violence, whether or not the diagnostic label "psychopath" was present. Interestingly, when asked to rate the defendant's likelihood for future violence and murder, the defendant who was a high risk for future violence and not labeled a psychopath received the highest rating. These results suggest an absence of juror bias as it pertains to the label "psychopath" when sentencing a defendant in a capital murder case.
尽管关于《精神疾病诊断与统计手册》（DSM）在预测监禁囚犯暴力行为方面的能力存在混合的经验证据，但它仍被用于解决此类问题，甚至在死刑案件中也是如此。本研究旨在检验《精神疾病诊断与统计手册》在死刑谋杀案的量刑阶段是否对模拟陪审团成员产生偏见影响。结果表明，当被告表现出高度可能会实施未来暴力行为时，无论是否存在“精神病态者”的诊断标签，参与者更有可能判处被告死刑。有趣的是，当被要求对被告未来暴力和谋杀的可能性进行评级时，被认为未来暴力风险高但未被贴上精神病态者标签的被告获得了最高评级。这些结果表明，在对死刑谋杀案的被告进行量刑时，陪审团不存在与“精神病态者”标签相关的偏见。
