Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
J Interpers Violence. 2020 Oct;35(19-20):3963-3985. doi: 10.1177/0886260517713715. Epub 2017 Jun 14.
There have been several recent, high-profile cases in the media that have shed light on the perceived leniency in sentencing defendants in sexual assault cases. In a number of these cases, the defendant was well known within their community (e.g., Brock Turner; ) or nationally (e.g., Ghomeshi; ). The purpose of this study was to examine how the social status of the defendant (low vs. high), victim social status (low vs. high), victim gender (male vs. female), and the reason the victim was unconscious during the assault (consuming alcohol vs. consuming cold medicine) influenced mock jurors' decisions in a sexual assault case. Mock jurors ( = 489) read a mock trial transcript depicting an alleged sexual assault. Mock jurors were asked to render a dichotomous verdict, continuous guilt rating, and rate their perceptions of the victim and defendant. There was no influence of the variables on mock jurors' dichotomous verdicts; however, social status influenced guilt ratings. There also was a combined influence of the defendant's social status and the reason the victim was unconscious such that when the defendant was described as low status, and the victim was unconscious due to alcohol consumption, the defendant received higher guilt ratings compared with when the victim was unconscious due to cold medicine. Moreover, the victim was perceived as having more control over the situation when the defendant was the star quarterback (i.e., high status), the victim was female, and she was unconscious due to alcohol consumption compared with cold medicine. These results suggest that victims may be blamed based on their perceived social status and other factors that may have influenced their control over the sexual assault, such as alcohol consumption.
最近媒体上出现了几起备受瞩目的案件，这些案件揭示了性侵案件中被告量刑过轻的问题。在这些案件中，被告在其所在社区（例如 Brock Turner）或全国范围内（例如 Ghomeshi）都享有一定的知名度。本研究旨在探讨被告的社会地位（低 vs. 高）、受害者的社会地位（低 vs. 高）、受害者的性别（男 vs. 女）以及受害者在遭受攻击时昏迷的原因（饮酒 vs. 服用感冒药）如何影响模拟陪审员在性侵案件中的决策。模拟陪审员（=489）阅读了一个模拟审判记录，其中描述了一起涉嫌性侵案件。模拟陪审员被要求做出二选一的裁决、连续的有罪评级，并对受害者和被告进行评价。变量对模拟陪审员的二选一裁决没有影响；然而，社会地位影响了有罪评级。被告的社会地位和受害者昏迷的原因也有综合影响，当被告被描述为社会地位较低，且受害者因饮酒而昏迷时，与受害者因服用感冒药而昏迷相比，被告会获得更高的有罪评级。此外，当被告是明星四分卫（即高地位）、受害者是女性且因饮酒而昏迷时，受害者对情况的控制感被认为比因服用感冒药而昏迷时更强。这些结果表明，受害者可能会因其被认为的社会地位以及其他可能影响其对性侵事件的控制程度的因素（如饮酒）而受到指责。
