Juror Decision Making in Acquaintance and Marital Rape: The Influence of Clothing, Alcohol, and Preexisting Stereotypical Attitudes

Abstract

Stereotypical biases about women's roles in intimate relationships including their marital status and lifestyle choices such as clothing and alcohol use influence juror attributions of rape case defendant guilt, potentially reducing access to justice for victims. Across two mock-juror decision making experiments, participants read identical fictitious sexual assault vignettes varying in intoxicated defendant-complainant relationship (married vs. acquaintance), accompanied by photographs of complainant clothing at the crime (body revealing vs. plain) and in court (smart vs. casual). Experiment 2 additionally described the defendant's alcohol consumption as either under or over the drink drive limit. Most participants delivered guilty verdicts (Experiment 1: 86.7%; Experiment 2: 75.5%), recommending mean prison sentences of 5.04 years in Experiment 1 (n = 218 students) and 4.33 years in Experiment 2 (n = 1,086 members of public). In Experiment 1, guilty verdict rates and sentences were significantly higher when the married -but not the acquaintancecomplainant dressed smartly rather than casually in court. In Experiment 2, significantly more guilty verdicts were delivered by females (80.3%) than males (66.9%), while sentence lengths were longer in acquaintance (M = 4.52 years) than married conditions (M = 4.10).Significant interactions between defendant alcohol use and clothing choice of the marriedbut not the acquaintance complainant -at the crime also influenced sentencing decisions.Higher scores on additionally administered scales measuring rape myth acceptance and sexist attitudes, but not alcohol expectancies, predicted lenient sentencing decisions in both experiments. These findings highlight how 'rape myths' concerning marriages drive juror decisions. Prosecuting lawyers should use these results to better challenge these attitudes in court. Internationally, rape is often unreported to the police, and married victims may be more willing to come forward if they believe unbiased access to justice is likely.Acquaintance and marital rape 3

Tipping the Scales: Effects of Gender, Rape Myth Acceptance, and Anti-Fat Attitudes on Judgments of Sexual Coercion Scenarios

“…Nor were participants probed regarding their impressions of the perpetrator’s characteristics. Although this is a common methodological omission (Harper et al, 2020; Johnson et al, 2016; Osborn et al, 2021), it is possible that some perpetrator characteristic may also be influenced by the victim weight manipulation. This is possible given that the context of the vignette used was a date, people’s assumption that people of like attractiveness date (Feingold, 1988), and that men who date attractive women are perceived more favorably than those who are dating unattractive women (Sigall & Landy, 1973).…”

“…Others have found similar results (Goodman-Delahunty, & Graham, 2011; Whatley, 2005; see Johnson, Ju, & Wu, 2016, for a review). Most recently, Osborn, Davis, Button, and Foster (2021) noted the contextual effects that victim attire has on mock juror responses. For instance, if the complainant was married to the perpetrator and wore professional clothing to the trial, more guilty verdicts were rendered compared with the married victim who wore casual attire.…”

Lady Injustice: The Moderating Effect of Ambivalent Sexism in a Mock Case of Intimate Partner Homicide

“…The gender of jurors has also been demonstrated as a key variable in sentencing outcomes for defendants. There has been considerable evidence to suggest that mock female jurors are more likely to deliver harsher sentences than their male counterparts in cases of sexual violence such as child molestation (McCauley & Parker, 2001;Pozzulo et al, 2010), and sexual assault and rape (Grubb & Harrower, 2008;Osborn et al, 2018). It is important to recognize that this gendered-sentencing pattern has been demonstrated for crimes stereotyped as male-perpetrated and female-victimized.…”

The Impact of Threat Type and Prior Abuse History on Perceptions of Intimate Partner Sexual Coercion

“…The concise nature of the vignettes was chosen to allow for a more powerful within-participants design and also because the purpose of the study was not to examine decision making in the context of a court trial. The latter has been investigated in other studies (Lynch et al, 2017; Osborn et al, 2018) and we hope will be used in future research investigating the impact of threats in intimate partner sexual coercion cases.…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, no published study has investigated how sexual coercion involving varying threats is perceived (i.e., intimate partner sexual coercion; Osborn et al, 2018). This research is necessary, as many intimate partner sexual coercion cases involve perpetrators using threats and intimidation in an effort to coerce victims into sex (Basile, 2002; Spitzberg, 1998).…”