Abstract：
A quarter of women and 11% of men report being survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) during their lifetimes in the United States. Despite being victims themselves, people who kill their IPV abuser can still be subject to criminal proceedings. Given this complexity, the law has employed battered spouse syndrome (BSS) as a tool used in some jurisdictions to support a claim that an IPV survivor killed in self-defense. A defendant who is attempting to claim self-defense using BSS may introduce testimony of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, a diagnosis of PTSD can pose problems in admission during litigation as the occurrence of a traumatic event is often what is being decided. The present study examined how college students, living on the U.S.-México border, perceive survivors-turned-defendants in a BSS mock trial. Specifically, we had each participant read a written trial transcript of a mock trial where gender of the defendant and clinical diagnosis of PTSD were manipulated. The current study hypothesized that jurors would be more lenient toward female defendants than male defendants (Hypothesis 1), jurors would be influenced by a PTSD diagnosis of the defendant (Hypothesis 2a-b), and female jurors would be more lenient than male jurors (Hypothesis 3). We also wanted to examine the impact of victim blaming, sexism, stigma of PTSD, and prior exposure to IPV on decision-making (Hypothesis 4a-d). Findings showed jurors were more lenient with female defendants than male defendants, however there was no effect of clinical diagnosis except on difficulty of decision. Implications of the role defendant gender has in decision-making is discussed.
摘要：
在美国，四分之一的女性和11%的男性报告是亲密伴侣暴力(IPV)的幸存者。尽管自己也是受害者,杀死IPV滥用者的人仍然可能受到刑事诉讼。鉴于这种复杂性,法律采用受虐配偶综合征(BSS)作为一些司法管辖区使用的工具来支持IPV幸存者在自卫中丧生的说法.试图使用BSS进行自卫的被告可能会提供创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）的证词。然而,创伤后应激障碍的诊断可能会在诉讼期间给入院带来问题，因为创伤事件的发生通常是正在决定的。本研究调查了大学生，生活在美国-墨西哥边境，在BSS模拟审判中感知幸存者转变为被告。具体来说,我们让每位参与者阅读一份模拟试验的书面试验记录,其中操纵了被告的性别和PTSD的临床诊断.当前的研究假设陪审员对女性被告比男性被告更宽容（假设1），陪审员会受到被告创伤后应激障碍诊断的影响(假设2a-b)，女性陪审员会比男性陪审员更宽松(假设3)。我们还想研究受害者指责的影响，性别歧视,创伤后应激障碍的耻辱，以及在决策时事先暴露于IPV(假设4a-d)。调查结果显示，陪审员对女性被告比男性被告更宽容，然而，除了决策困难外，临床诊断没有影响。讨论了被告性别在决策中的作用。
