Osborn Kirsty, Davis Josh P, Button Susan, Foster John
University of Greenwich, London, UK.
J Interpers Violence. 2021 Mar;36(5-6):NP2675-NP2696. doi: 10.1177/0886260518768566. Epub 2018 Apr 9.
Stereotypical biases about women's roles in intimate relationships including their marital status and lifestyle choices such as clothing and alcohol use influence juror attributions of rape case defendant guilt, potentially reducing access to justice for victims. Across two mock-juror decision-making experiments, participants read identical fictitious sexual assault vignettes varying in intoxicated defendant-complainant relationship (married vs. acquaintance), accompanied by photographs of complainant clothing at the crime (body revealing vs. plain) and in court (smart vs. casual). Experiment 2 additionally described the defendant's alcohol consumption as either under or over the drink drive limit. Most participants delivered guilty verdicts (Experiment 1: 86.7%; Experiment 2: 75.5%), recommending mean prison sentences of 5.04 years in Experiment 1 ( = 218 students) and 4.33 years in Experiment 2 ( = 1,086 members of public). In Experiment 1, guilty verdict rates and sentences were significantly higher when the married-but not the acquaintance-complainant dressed smartly rather than casually in court. In Experiment 2, significantly more guilty verdicts were delivered by females (80.3%) than males (66.9%), while sentence lengths were longer in acquaintance ( = 4.52 years) than married conditions ( = 4.10). Significant interactions between defendant alcohol use and clothing choice of the married-but not the acquaintance complainant-at the crime also influenced sentencing decisions. Higher scores on additionally administered scales measuring rape myth acceptance and sexist attitudes, but not alcohol expectancies, predicted lenient sentencing decisions in both experiments. These findings highlight how "rape myths" concerning marriages drive juror decisions. Prosecuting lawyers should use these results to better challenge these attitudes in court. Internationally, rape is often unreported to the police, and married victims may be more willing to come forward if they believe unbiased access to justice is likely.
关于女性在亲密关系中的角色的刻板偏见，包括她们的婚姻状况以及诸如着装和饮酒等生活方式选择，会影响陪审员对强奸案被告有罪与否的判定，这可能会减少受害者获得司法公正的机会。在两项模拟陪审员决策实验中，参与者阅读了相同的虚构性侵犯短文，其中涉及醉酒的被告与原告的关系（已婚 vs. 相识），并配有犯罪现场（暴露身体的着装 vs. 普通着装）和法庭上（得体着装 vs. 休闲着装）原告的照片。实验2还描述了被告的饮酒量是低于还是高于酒驾限制。大多数参与者做出了有罪裁决（实验1：86.7%；实验2：75.5%），在实验1中（n = 218名学生）建议的平均监禁刑期为5.04年，在实验2中（n = 1086名公众）为4.33年。在实验1中，当已婚但不是相识的原告在法庭上穿着得体而非休闲时，有罪裁决率和刑期显著更高。在实验2中，女性做出有罪裁决的比例（80.3%）显著高于男性（66.9%），而相识关系（M = 4.52年）中的刑期比已婚关系（M = 4.10年）更长。被告饮酒情况与已婚但不是相识的原告在犯罪时的着装选择之间的显著交互作用也影响了量刑决定。在两项实验中，额外进行的衡量对强奸谬见的接受程度和性别歧视态度（但不包括饮酒预期）的量表得分较高，预示着量刑决定较为宽松。这些发现凸显了关于婚姻的“强奸谬见”如何驱动陪审员的决策。检方律师应利用这些结果在法庭上更好地挑战这些态度。在国际上，强奸案往往未向警方报案，如果已婚受害者相信有可能获得公正无偏的司法审判，她们可能更愿意站出来。
