PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Reports of sexual offences have increased in recent years, with many cases involving allegations against high-status individuals (e.g., Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby). In addition, many of these cases have involved allegations against the defendant from multiple victims, with long delays in reporting of the alleged assault. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of defendant occupational status (low vs. high), defendant race (White, Black), number of allegations (one vs. five victims), and the length of reporting delay (5, 20, or 35 years) on mock-juror decision-making. Mock-jurors (N = 752) read a mock-trial transcript describing a sexual assault case. After reading the trial transcript, mock-jurors were asked to provide dichotomous and continuous guilt ratings, as well as ratings regarding their perceptions of the defendant and victim. Results revealed that mock-jurors rendered more guilty verdicts, assigned higher guilt ratings, and perceived the defendant less favorably and the victim more favorably, when the defendant was White (as opposed to Black) and when there were multiple allegations against the defendant. The current findings suggest that defendant race and the number of allegations are highly influential in the context of a sexual assault case.
摘要：
近年来，有关性犯罪的报告有所增加，许多案件涉及针对高地位个人的指控(例如，哈维·温斯坦,比尔·科斯比）。此外,其中许多案件涉及多名受害者对被告的指控，在报告所谓的袭击事件方面拖延了很长时间。这项研究的目的是检查被告职业地位的影响(低与高),被告种族（怀特，黑色),指控数量(1对五名受害者)，以及模拟陪审员决策的报告延迟时间(5年、20年或35年)。模拟陪审员（N=752）阅读了描述性侵犯案件的模拟审判笔录。看完审判记录后，模拟陪审员被要求提供二分法和连续的内疚评级，以及他们对被告和受害者的看法的评级。结果显示，模拟陪审员做出了更多有罪判决，被分配了更高的负罪感等级，认为被告不太有利，受害者更有利，当被告是白人（而不是黑人），并且有针对被告的多项指控时。目前的调查结果表明，在性侵犯案件中，被告种族和指控数量具有很大的影响力。
