Grady Rebecca Hofstein, Reiser Lauren, Garcia Robert J, Koeu Christian, Scurich Nicholas
Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine, USA.
Department of Criminology, Law, and Society, University of California, Irvine, USA.
Psychiatr Psychol Law. 2018 Mar 15;25(4):503-521. doi: 10.1080/13218719.2018.1440468. eCollection 2018.
Gruesome crime scene and autopsy photographs are admissible evidence under the Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE) if their probative value substantially outweighs their prejudicial impact. Despite important methodological differences and mixed results from past studies, recommendations from the psychological literature have been made about the prejudicial impact of gruesome photographs perhaps prematurely. This meta-analysis investigates whether there is sufficient empirical evidence that presenting gruesome photographs in a trial affects legal decisions. The analysis of 23 studies and 4868 participants shows a small but statistically significant effect of gruesome photographs increasing guilty/liable verdicts or punishments, Hedge's = 0.143, 95% CI: [0.055, 0.232]. However, this effect is significantly, (1) = 8.086, = .004, and substantially moderated by an important methodological distinction: the effect is much larger when studies compare gruesome photographs with no photographs ( = 0.450) than when they are compared with neutral photographs ( = 0.077). These results suggest that gruesome photographs do increase affirmative verdicts, both through a small effect of gruesome content as well as a larger additive of having visual material. These findings help shed light on the mixed empirical results and suggest that important additional research is needed.
根据《联邦证据规则》（FRE），可怕的犯罪现场照片和尸检照片如果其证明价值大大超过其偏见性影响，可作为可采信的证据。尽管过去的研究在方法上存在重要差异且结果不一，但心理学文献可能过早地就可怕照片的偏见性影响提出了建议。这项荟萃分析调查是否有足够的实证证据表明在审判中出示可怕照片会影响法律裁决。对23项研究和4868名参与者的分析表明，可怕照片对增加有罪/有责裁决或惩罚有微小但在统计上显著的影响，赫奇斯效应量 = 0.143，95%置信区间：[0.055, 0.232]。然而，这种影响在很大程度上受到一个重要方法差异的显著调节，（卡方值）= 8.086，（p值）= .004：当研究将可怕照片与无照片进行比较时（效应量 = 0.450），其影响远大于与中性照片比较时（效应量 = 0.077）。这些结果表明，可怕照片确实会增加肯定性裁决，这既是由于可怕内容的微小影响，也是由于有视觉材料这一更大的附加影响。这些发现有助于阐明混合的实证结果，并表明需要进行重要的进一步研究。
