The Impact of Angry Versus Sad Victim Impact Statements on Mock Jurors’ Sentencing Decisions in a Capital Trial

Nuñez, Narina; Myers, Bryan; Wilkowski, Benjamin M.; Schweitzer, Kimberly

doi:10.1177/0093854816689809

Cited by 17 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 42 publications

(80 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…the debate, see Pemberton & Reynaers, 2011). For example, concerns have been raised regarding the possibility that vengeful attitudes of the victim or unwarranted sympathy with an emotional victim may distort perceptions of what punishment should be imposed on the offender (Bandes & Salerno, 2014;Nuñez, Myers, Wilkowski, & Schweitzer, 2017). However, leaving aside the implications for the justice procedure, self-expression is also expected to have major consequences for how the victim him-or herself is perceived and acknowledged.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Observer reactions to emotional victims of serious crimes: stereotypes and expectancy violations

Bosma

Mulder

Pemberton

et al. 2018

Psychology, Crime & Law

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Negative observer reactions towards victims may be related to people's expectations of the characteristics and demeanor of an ideal victim. We examined how expressed emotion, victim sex, and type of victimization influence observers' perceptions of victim credibility, victim character, and harm. Our hypothesis was that angry victims, male victims, and victims of sexual violence are perceived less positively than sad victims, female victims, and victims of physical violence. Additionally, we anticipated that expectancy violations following expressed agentic/high status, or passive/low-status emotions of the victim would lead to negative reactions. Participants (N = 335) read a written victim impact statement, by a male or female victim of a sexual or physical assault, in which anger or sadness was expressed. The results show that observers generally respond more negatively to male victims than to female victims, and to victims expressing anger rather than sadness. However, a two-way interaction between expressed emotion and type of crime revealed that expressed emotion only significantly influences character derogation and victim credibility in cases of physical violence. Finally, emotion expectancy violations based on ex-ante expectations lead to derogation and diminished credibility. The discussion focuses on how emotion expectancy violations seem intimately tied to stereotype-ridden features of victimization.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Observer reactions to emotional victims of serious crimes: stereotypes and expectancy violations

Bosma

Mulder

Pemberton

et al. 2018

Psychology, Crime & Law

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Thus, these attributional processes—in addition to dehumanization and retribution—explained the relationship between BPE and punishment. Future research could explore other possible mediators, such as emotion; research shows that increased feelings of anger during criminal trials result in harsher punishment, included capital punishment (Georges et al, 2013; Nuñez et al, 2017). Specifically, people higher in BPE may feel angrier about criminal harmdoing, which may increase such punishment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Demons with guns: How belief in pure evil relates to Attributional judgments for gun violence perpetrators

Webster

Vasturia

Saucier

2021

Applied Cognitive Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary People who report greater belief in pure evil (BPE; the tendency to attribute harmdoing to dispositionally sadistic perpetrators) generally punish criminal perpetrators more regardless of mitigating circumstances (e.g., having a brain tumor). What attributional/cognitive processes underlie such punishment? A national sample (final N = 302) read an alleged USA Today article about a mall shooting. We manipulated whether the shooter exhibited a brain tumor and whether the shooter exhibited stereotypically evil traits. Regardless of experimental conditions, individuals who reported greater BPE perceived the shooter's behavior as more internal, intentional, controllable, and blameworthy. These attributional judgments also helped mediate the relationship between BPE and punishment. Ancillary measures demonstrated other potential cognitive biases (overprecision and confirmation bias) in processing information about the shooter/shooting. In sum, people who report greater BPE held the shooter more liable for his actions despite mitigating evidence, and such attributions helped explain the link between BPE and punishment.

show abstract

“…In Booth and later Payne, the U.S. Supreme Court voiced concerns regarding prejudicial effects of VISs due to their potential to be inflammatory. This issue has been investigated by a number of researchers using a jury simulation approach and the findings have tended to show that angry jurors are more likely to sentence the defendant to death than sad jurors (e.g., Nuñez et al, 2017). In the present investigation, the emotional nature of VISs was examined by measuring information present in the VISs likely to generate emotions in jurors (e.g., descriptions of their emotional pain and suffering), but also by conducting a linguistic analysis of emotional language present in the testimony.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most recently, Nuñez, Myers, Wilkowski, and Schweitzer (2017) randomly assigned death-qualified mock jurors to watch one of six videotaped trials that crossed three levels of VISs (no VIS, sad VIS, angry VIS) with two levels of mitigating factors (weak vs. strong). The emotionality of the VIS was manipulated by altering witness demeanor.…”

Section: Jury Simulation Studies Investigating the Inflammatory Effec...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The heterogeneity of victim impact statements: A content analysis of capital trial sentencing penalty phase transcripts.

Myers

Nuñez

Wilkowski

et al. 2018

Psychology, Public Policy, and Law

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Victim impact statements (VISs) are controversial in capital sentencing proceedings largely due to their questionable relevance to sentencing, the concern that characterizations of the victim may lead to arbitrary sentencing judgments, and the belief that the emotional nature of this evidence may be inflammatory. A sample of 192 capital trial VIS transcripts was analyzed for content as well as a linguistic analysis of emotionality. The findings reveal that these statements are highly varied, including their format, length, and relation between the witness and the victim. Despite a legislative mandate that they address the emotional, financial, and physical suffering experienced by victim survivors, testimony of this nature occurs in a minority of the cases. Most commonly, these statements tend to characterize the victim and their qualities, relay the witness' shock at first learning of the victim's death (i.e., trauma narratives), and address the significance of the deceased to the family unit. In approximately one third of the transcripts reviewed, the witness made mention of the defendant, but this rarely included any mention of a desire for vengeance or recommended punishment. Linguistic analysis revealed that emotional content was prevalent throughout the testimony, with sadness emerging as more pervasive than anger. However, the degree of emotional language contained in these statements was not particularly high-and was comparable to that typically encountered in everyday life (e.g., newspapers, novels). Implications, particularly with regard to the potential for VISs to be considered inflammatory, are discussed.

show abstract

The Impact of Angry Versus Sad Victim Impact Statements on Mock Jurors’ Sentencing Decisions in a Capital Trial

Cited by 17 publications

References 42 publications

Observer reactions to emotional victims of serious crimes: stereotypes and expectancy violations

Observer reactions to emotional victims of serious crimes: stereotypes and expectancy violations

Demons with guns: How belief in pure evil relates to Attributional judgments for gun violence perpetrators

The heterogeneity of victim impact statements: A content analysis of capital trial sentencing penalty phase transcripts.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About