Burke Kelly C, Golding Jonathan M, Neuschatz Jeffrey, Geoghagan Libbi
Department of Psychology, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX 79968, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2025 Jun 23;15(7):844. doi: 10.3390/bs15070844.
Rape is typically committed as a one-on-one crime. However, a relatively high number of rapes (2-27%) involve a single victim and multiple perpetrators. These cases are often referred to as "gang" rapes but are also termed Multiple Perpetrator Rape (MPR). Despite these data, there is a scarce amount of legal decision-making research on this issue. This study investigated legal decision making in an acquaintance rape case involving multiple perpetrators. This study was a 2(Defendant Number: one vs. three) × 2(Victim Intoxication: intoxicated vs. sober) × 2(Participant Gender: women vs. men) between-participants design. Online community members ( = 171) were randomly assigned to read a trial summary involving one of four conditions. The primary results showed that, when the case involved multiple (vs. one) perpetrators, mock jurors were more likely to vote guilty, perceived the victim to be more helpless, and reported less sympathy for the defendant and lower defendant credibility. Cognitive networks showed that jurors in the MPR condition emphasized the number of perpetrators as a primary reason for voting guilty. Finally, there was evidence of a serial indirect effect involving victim helplessness and defendant blame that explained the relation between the number of defendants and verdicts, as well as parallel indirect effects of defendant credibility, sympathy, and anger, and victim helplessness on verdicts. Implications for prosecuting MPR cases are discussed.
强奸通常作为一对一的犯罪行为发生。然而，相当一部分强奸案（2%-27%）涉及单一受害者和多名犯罪者。这些案件通常被称为“轮奸”，但也被称为多人犯罪强奸（MPR）。尽管有这些数据，但关于这个问题的法律决策研究却很少。本研究调查了一起涉及多名犯罪者的熟人强奸案中的法律决策。本研究采用了参与者间设计，包括2（被告人数：一人对三人）×2（受害者醉酒状态：醉酒对清醒）×2（参与者性别：女性对男性）。在线社区成员（N = 171）被随机分配阅读涉及四种情况之一的审判摘要。主要结果表明，当案件涉及多名（与一名）犯罪者时，模拟陪审员更有可能投票认定有罪，认为受害者更无助，对被告的同情更少，被告的可信度更低。认知网络显示，MPR条件下的陪审员强调犯罪者的数量是投票认定有罪的主要原因。最后，有证据表明存在一系列间接效应，涉及受害者的无助感和对被告的指责，这解释了被告人数与判决之间的关系，以及被告可信度、同情和愤怒以及受害者无助感对判决的平行间接效应。讨论了对MPR案件起诉的影响。
