Factors impacting juror perceptions of battered women who kill their abusers: Delay and sleeping status.

Abstract

Community members (N ϭ 187) rendered judgments about a case of a battered woman who killed her abuser allegedly in self-defense. The experiment was designed to isolate the effects of time delay before killing and the victim's sleeping status, as prior research has confounded these two variables. Results showed that delay affected conviction rates only for women; men convicted at high rates regardless of delay, whereas women convicted at higher rates when the killing occurred following a long delay versus a short delay. Regardless of participant gender, sleeping status significantly predicted verdicts: conviction rates were higher when the victim was asleep than when he was awake. Implications for the use of the self-defense plea and potential policy changes related to domestic violence are discussed.

Improving the Credibility of Child Sexual Assault Victims in Court: The Impact of a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner

“…Third, the observed participant gender difference for almost all dependent variables replicated a robust finding from child sexual assault research (Golding et al ., ) and research in other areas of victimization (e.g., Hodell, Dunlap, Waserhaley & Golding, ; Rotundo, Nguyen, & Sackett, ). We found this overall difference even when the trial presented SANE testimony; there were no significant participant gender × testimony interactions.…”

An exploration of Thai public perceptions of defenses in cases of women who kill their domestically violent spouses

“…That is, if the observer perceived personal or situational similarity as low, greater responsibility is attributed to the perpetrator as the severity of the tragic event's consequences increases, whereas if the identification with the perpetrator is high, responsibility attributions are diminished (Fincham & Jaspars, 1980). Second, in their recent study of factors impacting on jurors' decision processes of battered women who kill, Hodell, Dunlap, Wasarhaley, and Golding (2012) argued that the line between the gender of the perpetrator and victim becomes blurred as the woman may be considered both a victim of domestic violence as well as the perpetrator in killing her husband. The abusive husband who is considered the perpetrator may also be viewed as the victim in the case at hand as he is the victim of homicide.…”

“…Second, in their recent study of factors impacting on jurors’ decision processes of battered women who kill, Hodell, Dunlap, Wasarhaley, and Golding (2012) argued that the line between the gender of the perpetrator and victim becomes blurred as the woman may be considered both a victim of domestic violence as well as the perpetrator in killing her husband. The abusive husband who is considered the perpetrator may also be viewed as the victim in the case at hand as he is the victim of homicide.…”