Department of Psychology, University of Wyoming4416, Laramie, USA.
J Interpers Violence. 2022 Dec;37(23-24):NP22453-NP22474. doi: 10.1177/08862605211072165. Epub 2022 Feb 15.
The LGBTQ+ panic defense is a provocation defense strategy used to attain a lesser sentence for the defendant. It is often used by cisgender straight men to provide reasoning for a violent reaction to an unwanted sexual advance from an LGBTQ+ individual. Existing empirical work has examined juror perceptions of the LGBTQ+ panic defense used against gay victims, but lacks investigation of instances when the victim identifies as transgender. Utilizing a sample of 233 undergraduate students, we examine how mock jurors' individual characteristics (political orientation, masculine honor beliefs, and prejudices) influence victim perceptions (negative affect and blame) as well as verdict decisions in three different defense scenarios (transgender panic defense, transsexual panic defense, and neutral provocation defense). As predicted, participants exposed to trans panic defenses rendered more lenient verdicts compared to the control condition. Mediation analyses revealed that mock jurors with higher masculine honor beliefs and a more conservative political ideology expressed more negative affect toward the victim, leading to more lenient verdict decisions. Additionally, a path analysis revealed verdict to be double mediated by negative affect and victim blame. Legislation to ban the use of LGBTQ+ defenses has been accepted in some U.S. states and two countries, but it is still legal in a majority of U.S. states and worldwide. Therefore, it is important that research examines claims being made about the nature of the defense strategy.
性少数群体恐慌防御是一种挑衅防御策略，用于为被告争取较轻的判决。它通常被顺性别直男用于为对来自性少数群体的不受欢迎的性侵犯的暴力反应提供理由。现有实证研究已经考察了陪审员对针对同性恋受害者使用的性少数群体恐慌防御的看法，但缺乏对受害者认同为跨性别者的情况的调查。利用 233 名本科生的样本，我们考察了在三种不同的辩护情景下（跨性别恐慌防御、易性癖恐慌防御和中性挑衅防御），模拟陪审员的个人特征（政治取向、男子气概荣誉信念和偏见）如何影响受害者的看法（负面情绪和责备）以及判决决定。正如预测的那样，接触跨性别恐慌防御的参与者与对照组相比，做出了更宽大的判决。中介分析表明，具有更高男子气概荣誉信念和更保守政治意识形态的模拟陪审员对受害者表现出更多的负面情绪，从而导致更宽大的判决决定。此外，路径分析表明，判决由负面情绪和受害者责备双重中介。在美国的一些州和两个国家已经接受了禁止使用性少数群体防御的立法，但在大多数美国州和全球范围内，这种防御仍然是合法的。因此，研究审查关于防御策略性质的主张是很重要的。
