The present study identifies structural aspects of victimization stories told by adult survivors of child sexual abuse that indicate truth-telling to potential jurors and increase the stories' believability. Jury-eligible undergraduate students (n = 175) were asked to indicate how believable they found six different stories about prior victimization using the Narrative Believability Scale (NBS-12; Yale, 2013). Partial support was found for the hypothesis that stories that include an ending to the abuse will be more believable than stories that are unclear regarding how/if the abuse ended. The findings of the present study have implications for the ways in which victims speak in court, the questions attorneys ask, and the multifaceted nature of what makes a story believable.
The current studies sought to examine whether assault type. among various extralegal variables, influenced mock jurors' judgments. Study 1 investigated whether assault type (physical vs. sexual), delay in reporting (one year vs. ten years), and the victim's familiarity with the defendant (familiar vs. not familiar) influenced mock jurors' judgments. Mock-jurors (N = 238) read a mock-trial transcript of either a physical or sexual assault that occurred at the victim's camp one year or ten years prior. The alleged perpetrator was a camp counselor that the victim had never met before or met their first year at the camp. Study 2 (N = 464) investigated whether assault type, delayed reporting, familiarity and victim gender were influential. The overarching theme present in the results is that sexual assault is perceived more negatively than physical assault as evidenced by higher guilt ratings and less favorable perceptions attributed to the defendant. Additionally, mock-jurors appear to be more hesitant to believe a victim who delayed her reporting of physical assault, compared to a delayed reporting of sexual assault. Implications of these findings and ideas for future research are discussed.
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged courts to implement practices that protect the health of both the administrators and consumers of justice during in-person proceedings, such as requiring the use of facemasks. Masks introduce interesting new questions for justice professionals. For example, what are potential jurors perceptions about masks' impact on communication? A survey of MTurk (TM) workers (N = 177) revealed respondents had a modest belief that masks could interfere with communication across actors, including the ability to understand information and assess "truth" in interactions. Respondents who were Native American, older, Catholic, Republican, and/or conservative tended to believe more strongly that masks interfere with communication. Implications of these findings for practice and future research arc presented.
Jurors are tasked with determining if the defendant's alleged transgression is the result of the defendant's guilty mind or other mitigating situational factors. The extant research, though, suggests that jurors tend to err in making these mens rea judgments. Jurors may have particular difficulty in judging mens rea when the defendant is a different race than the juror (i.e., harsher treatment of cross-raced defendants and less harsh treatment of same raced defendants, what are known as similarity leniency effects; Mitchell et al., 2005). The present research examined jurors' mens rea judgments of cross-raced defendants, whether there is any relation between similarity leniency effects and implicit racial biases, and whether causal attributions (i.e., emphasizing dispositional vs. situational causal attributions) mediate the relation between juror race and cross-race judgments of a defendant's mens rea (i.e., similarity leniency effects). The results indicate that causal attributions impact Black jurors' same-raced judgments, and that implicit racial bias is not related to similarity leniency. That is, for Black jurors tasked with determining a defendant's culpability, Black defendants will elicit situational causal attributions, and White defendants will elicit dispositional causal attributions, and these disparate causal attributions can influence mens rea determinations regardless of the jurors' implicit racial bias. The present results have important implications for researchers and legal system practitioners interested in ensuring that the jury system provides defendants with a fair and unbiased trial.
White Racial Identity is a relatively new concept with little to no consensus as to the operationalization of such identity. The first ever White Racial Identity model was developed by Janet E. Helms in 1990. The role of White racial identity has been studied in the context of the racial gap in employment and its influence on racial attitudes, but it has yet to be studied in the context of the juvenile justice system. The criminal justice system is racially unbalanced, with Black males imprisoned 5.5 times more than White males. One of the factors contributing to this imbalance is the interaction of racial prejudice and racial typification of criminality. To date, the literature excludes the exploration of White Racial Identity and its impact on the degree of punitive attitudes towards juvenile offenders, specifically Black juvenile offenders. To understand the connection of this racial identity and its impact on Black juvenile offenders, is to understand a potential avenue for juvenile justice reform in which racial biases do not dictate support nor opposition towards reform, but rather the efficacy of the reform is what is evaluated. This study investigated the relationship between healthy and unhealthy White Racial Identity and the level of punitiveness towards delinquency. This study collected data using the White Racial Identity Attitudes Scale and the Symbolic Racism 2000 Scale. A multiple regression implicated a significant relationship between the progression through the developmental stages of White Racial Identity and level of Symbolic Racism, as well as their impact on punitiveness towards delinquency.
This student explores domestic violence blame attributions of police officers and college students. A total of 387 college students from two institutions and 92 police officers were given the Domestic Violence Blame Attribution Scale (Petretic-Jackson et al., 1994). The results suggest that police officers and college students had significantly different ratings on the DVBS subscale scores, specifically that police officers had lower ratings of societal and perpetrator blame than college students. Continued exploration of the data showed that there were further differences within the samples. College students who had experienced domestic violence had different subscale scores than those that had not, notably that victims of domestic violence had higher ratings of situational blame. There also was a diffemnce between college students attending a public institution and those attending a private institution. Domestic violence training appears to correlate with lower victim blaming ratings for police officers. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Previous research has provided evidence that darker-skinned Black individuals are usually associated with more negative stereotypes, and they often receive harsher sentences for committing a crime compared to their lighter-skinned Black and White counterparts. While this prior work suggests the presence of a skin tone bias within the criminal justice system. few experimental studies have accounted for the type of crime committed. In a 2 (skin tone: light-skinned Black, dark-skinned Black, or White skin) x 2 (crime committed: white-collar or blue-collar) design, the present study examined whether the skin tone of the perpetrator and type of crime committed influenced judgements of guilt and beliefs about the perpetrator's character. The results showed that a skin tone bias was present only when the perpetrator committed a blue-collar crime. Furthermore, participants believed that the light-skinned Black perpetrator appeared less dangerous, threatening, and violent, compared to the dark-skinned Black and White perpetrators. This study demonstrates how the effects of an interracial bias may partly depend on the type of crime committed.
The current study was designed to test a full systemic model of social disorganization and develop better indicators for intervening variables. Data come from the 2002-2003 Seattle Neighborhoods and Crime Survey (n = 2,200). Measures include six exogenous structural variables. Intervening variables are neighboring, social networks, and collective efficacy. Structural equation modeling was used to explore the direct and indirect effects of these measures on crime victimization. Results show neighboring had a direct positive effect and an indirect negative effect via collective efficacy on crime victimization. Two constructs for social networks emerged. Neighborhood networks showed a negative indirect effect on victimization via collective efficacy. Non-neighborhood networks showed a direct positive effect on victimization. Implications of the findings, as well as limitations and directions for future research, are discussed.
Research concludes that after receiving sentencing phase instructions in capital cases, mock jurors do not understand aggravating and mitigating factors, and the behaviors or circumstances that contribute to each (e.g., Smith & Haney, 2011). Through utilization of a real murder trial transcript, the present study examines the effects of the simplicity (standard or simplified) and timing of the sentencing phase instructions (before or after sentencing phase testimony) on mock jurors' understanding of such factors. Thematic analysis of open-ended responses to survey questions also explores the nature of mock jurors' (mis)understanding. Results indicate that there is a relationship between type of instructions given and participants' understanding of both aggravating and mitigating factors. Simplified instructions resulted in better, but still poor, understanding. However, no statistically significant relationships are found between instruction timing and participants' understanding of aggravating or mitigating factors. Open-ended responses reveal ways in which participants erroneously define aggravating and mitigating factors, which could aid policy makers in the rewriting of sentencing phase instructions.
Police officers must rely on the available information when investigating crimes. One cue police sometimes rely on is suspect movement (e.g., furtive movements and headlong flight). The courts have explicitly allowed officers to use this information to support warrantless searches. Yet, there is scant empirical evidence examining whether suspect movement is associated with guilt. Using 141 participants in an experimental design, we examined whether individuals who were made guilty (experimentally) would be more likely to avoid a police representation in a social distance paradigm. We also examined a second legal perspective, that racial minorities or individuals who have low police legitimacy would be more likely to avoid the police. Using Bayesian statistics and information criteria we found that neither guilt nor race was associated with avoidance, but feeling guilty was positively associated with avoidance.
Historically, Black defendants have faced more severe sentences compared to White defendants. Research investigating this phenomenon in the paradigm of the insanity defense, found that Black defendants were acquitted as "not guilty by reason of insanity" (NGRI) significantly more often than White defendants (Poulson, 1990). In the current study, we investigate the influence of race of defendant and race of victim on judgments of NGRI in a 3 (race of victim: Black v. White v. Hispanic) x 3 (race of defendant: Black v. White v. Hispanic) between-subjects design. Our results indicated that a Hispanic defendant was acquitted NGRI more frequently and perceived as least dangerous compared to Black and White defendants. Assessments of future dangerousness were greatest when the defendant was Black and the victim was White. This finding provides supporting evidence of a cross-race effect within the context of criminal responsibility (Baldus et al., 1998). In addition, our findings offer an alternative to Poulson (1990), expanding this research to include Hispanic minorities as essential in this paradigm, and contribute to the research on the cross-race victim effect with juror decision making.
Background: Social and personal stigma surrounding mental disorders among public safety personnel (PSP), including correctional staff, is undergoing a process of transformation. We examined how diverse Canadian prison staff interpret mental health and treatment seeking. Methods: We conduct a secondary analysis of existing data collected through an anonymous on-line survey of 1,017 Canadian prison staff. Attitudes towards mental health and stigma were measured. Participants were also asked how likely they would be to seek help for a mental disorder. Comparisons between self-reported males and females and different occupational groups within prison were made using Mann-Whitney U statistics and an analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a Bonferroni correction. Results: Male participants (38.6% of the sample) were significantly more likely (p<0.001) to display stigma towards individuals with mental disorders and significantly less likely (p<0.001) to be willing to get treatment if they developed a mental health problem. We also found significant differences between prison staff based on occupation. Conclusions: Female participants and wellness staff report the most positive attitudes towards mental health and mental health treatment, yet some stigma still exists regarding mental disorders. Correctional staff are concerned about the impact of seeking treatment on their employment.
Purpose: This study aimed to systematically review the recidivism rates of older male sex offenders (50+) relative to their younger counterparts. Background: The older sex offender population in the UK is growing, which creates new challenges for offender management (i.e. risk management and psychological treatment). To address these challenges, it is important to consider recidivism risk among this aging population. No previous systematic review has focused on the reoffending of the older sex offender. Methods: Six electronic databases were searched, as was the reference list of a relevant meta-analysis. Inclusion criteria were applied to the search results. The included studies were quality assessed using pre-defined criteria. This was followed by data extraction and synthesis. Results: The electronic search returned 4,266 results. One additional publication was identified through hand searching. 1,137 duplicates, one meta-analysis, and 3,051 irrelevant publications were excluded. 48 publications were excluded due to not meeting the inclusion criteria. 11 publications were not accessible in the timeframe. Two studies were excluded as they did not meet the minimum threshold criteria, and another was excluded due to missing data. A further five studies were excluded that re-analysed already included samples. This left 11 publications containing 11 studies. Conclusions: Older sex offenders generally have lower sexual recidivism rates than younger offenders. However, this appears to be moderated by several factors, including offender typology, actuarial risk and criminal history, and results vary. These factors, alongside the poor quality of some studies, make it very difficult to determine the critical age of desistance from sexual offending. Given the importance of this in relation to case management, it is recommended that further high-quality research is conducted in this area.
Broadband assessment of personality and psychopathology may identify problems of clinical significance (e.g., suicidality, self-injury, untreated mental illness) not assessed in popular juvenile risk assessment tools. To investigate this possibility, we conducted multi-source, multi-method assessments of 11 community-dwelling juvenile offenders in a rural Midwestern county. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent-Restructured Form (MIvIPI-A-RF) and Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI) scores were obtained for each youth and operationalized with a descriptive q-sort. Criterion q-sort descriptions of the youth were obtained from the youth, caregivers, probation officers, therapists, and school staff. Scores on both instruments produced similar, reliable, and valid youth descriptions. In regression analyses, YLS/CMI profiles accounted for more variance in the criterion descriptions than the MMPI-A-RF (M Delta R2 = .26).
Years of psychological research indicate people are poor at matching the identity of a person with an ID photo. Known as the cross-race effect, this inept ability is exacerbated when the to-be-identified individual comes from a race that is different than the perceiver's own-race. Using a task that mimics document screening procedures, the purpose of the present study was to determine if perceiver motivation moderates the cross-race effect in face matching accuracy and the calibration between confidence and accuracy. In line with the Categorization-Individuation Model, results indicated perceiver motivation is critical to enhancing accuracy, particularly for other-race faces. The results have important implications for officers' "on the look-out" for a suspect or for document screeners seeking to identify imposter IDs.
Controversy surrounds the CIA's "enhanced interrogation" techniques that could be considered torture. Replicating previous studies, 1) sentiment toward torture was moderately supportive yet divided and 2) there was a positive relationship between belief that techniques are effective and belief they are justified. Supporting our hypotheses, general just world beliefs, religious fundamentalism, and moral disengagement negatively related to considering various techniques as torture and positively related to beliefs about effectiveness and justification of torture. Religious devotionalism positively related only to considering various techniques as torture, partially supporting hypotheses. Relationships between IVs (e.g., fundamentalism) and DVs (i.e., sentiment toward torture) were mediated by moral disengagement. This helps explain cognitive processes that underlie sentiment. Finally, the moral disengagement scale we developed had good reliability and predictive ability.
The current study examined whether eyewitness age (5-, 10-, 15-years-old), eyewitness familiarity with the defendant (personally familiar, casually familiar, stranger), and nature of the crime (personal, non-personal) influenced jurors' judgments. Undergraduate students (N = 568) read a case summary where the eyewitness reported being victim to an abduction or victim of a bike theft and were asked to render a dichotomous verdict, continuous guilt rating, and answer questions regarding their perceptions of the defendant and the eyewitness' identification. Familiarity and nature of the crime interacted to influence guilt ratings, perceptions of the defendant, and perceptions of the eyewitness' identification. Jurors reported higher guilt ratings, lower perceptions of the defendant, and were more likely to believe the eyewitness' identification was accurate when the eyewitness and defendant were familiar with each other and the crime was personal compared to non-personal. These results suggest familiarity between witnesses and defendants can influence jurors' perceptions and how believable the eyewitness identification is perceived to be.
Camera perspective bias demonstrates that videos of police interrogations focusing on the suspect yield higher ratings of guilt. This bias may generalize to police body camera videos that also focus on the suspect, particularly when observers with strong implicit racial attitudes watch a video with a racial minority suspect. We tested whether focusing on the citizen, police officer, or both influenced perception of a filmed police encounter. Compared to those who watched the officer or both individuals, those who focused on the citizen rated the citizen more negatively and the officer more positively. Participants' implicit racial attitudes significantly predicted judgments of the officer and citizen for all measures.
At the penalty phase of capital trials, emotionally charged testimony can be presented about the loss of the victim (Victim Impact Statement; VIS) or the potential loss of the defendant (Execution Impact Statement; EIS). This experiment examined how these impact statements influence mock jurors' decisions while accounting for evidence strength using a 2 (VIS or no VIS) X 2 (EIS or no EIS) X 2 (high aggravator case or high mitigator case) between-subjects design. Overall, results suggest impact statements do not strongly influence jurors' decisions. In contrast, evidence strength and perceptions of the defendant strongly predicted jurors' weighing of aggravators and mitigators and their sentencing decisions. Implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.
Non-registered intermediaries facilitate communication between the courts and vulnerable defendants. Although the role has generally been well received by practitioners, concerns have been raised regarding whether it jeopardises the fairness of legal proceedings. This study is the first to explore the influence of an intermediary on jurors' perceptions of a vulnerable defendant, in light of expectancy violation theory. This was achieved by mock jurors completing a questionnaire relating to their perceptions of a vulnerable defendant pre and post testimony. The juror's expectations were violated/exceeded when the intermediary accompanied the defendant. However, this had no negative implications for the outcome of the case. In fact, the defendant accompanied by an intermediary was perceived more positively than the defendant who was unassisted.
