Bottoms B L, Diviak K R, Davis S L
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago 60607-7137, USA.
Child Abuse Negl. 1997 Sep;21(9):845-59. doi: 10.1016/s0145-2134(97)00046-x.
Some of the most highly publicized child sexual abuse trials of this century have involved bizarre allegations of satanic ritual abuse, yet little is known about jurors' reactions to ritual abuse claims. We investigated how jurors' judgements of defendant guilt and witness credibility are affected by the presence or absence of satanic ritual abuse allegations.
Two hundred forty-three mock jurors rendered judgments about a case involving childhood sexual abuse allegations made by either a 5-year-old child or a 30-year-old adult survivor. The presence or absence of satanic ritual abuse allegations was varied between subjects. Jurors' religiosity was measured.
Although jurors were significantly less likely to believe the satanic ritual allegations than other case details, they were as likely to vote guilty and to believe the victim in satanic as in nonsatanic cases. Victim age had no significant effect on mock jurors' judgments, but there were marked individual differences in decisions: When the allegations involved satanic ritual abuse, religious jurors were more likely than less religious jurors to believe the victim. Further, across all conditions, women made more pro-victim judgements than did men.
Our findings suggest that highly bizarre details may be discounted by jurors (particularly less religious jurors), but that jurors may set aside their skepticism of satanic ritual details and make judgments about child sexual abuse cases based on their perceptions of the credibility of nonsatanic allegations of harm. Whether or not this is an accurate approach to decision-making in these cases remains an empirical question.
本世纪一些备受瞩目的儿童性虐待审判涉及到对撒旦仪式虐待的离奇指控，但对于陪审员对仪式虐待指控的反应却知之甚少。我们调查了撒旦仪式虐待指控的有无如何影响陪审员对被告有罪与否的判断以及对证人可信度的判断。
243名模拟陪审员对一起涉及一名5岁儿童或一名30岁成年幸存者提出的童年性虐待指控的案件进行了裁决。撒旦仪式虐待指控的有无在受试者之间有所不同。对陪审员的宗教信仰进行了测量。
尽管陪审员相信撒旦仪式指控的可能性明显低于相信其他案件细节的可能性，但他们在撒旦仪式案件和非撒旦仪式案件中投票判定有罪以及相信受害者的可能性是一样的。受害者年龄对模拟陪审员的裁决没有显著影响，但在裁决上存在明显的个体差异：当指控涉及撒旦仪式虐待时，宗教信仰较强的陪审员比宗教信仰较弱的陪审员更有可能相信受害者。此外，在所有情况下，女性做出的有利于受害者的判断都多于男性。
我们的研究结果表明，陪审员（尤其是宗教信仰较弱的陪审员）可能会对极其离奇的细节不予理会，但陪审员可能会抛开对撒旦仪式细节的怀疑，根据他们对非撒旦仪式伤害指控可信度的认知来对儿童性虐待案件做出判断。在这些案件中，这是否是一种准确的决策方式仍然是一个实证问题。
