The Effect of Trauma Education Judicial Instructions on Decisions About Complainant Credibility in Rape Trials

• Published in: Psychology, public policy, and law public policy, and law, 2023-02, Vol.29 (1), p.69-92
• Main Authors: Nitschke, Faye T., McKimmie, Blake M., Vanman, Eric J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Competency to Stand Trial; Credibility; Decision Making; Education; Female; Human; Juries; Legal Decisions; Male; Rape; Stereotyped Attitudes; Trauma; Witnesses
• ISSN: 1076-8971; 1939-1528
• DOI: 10.1037/law0000353

Judicial instructions are a practical, but not always effective, way of providing education to jurors to help them evaluate the evidence given by witnesses. In this research, we investigated whether jurors comprehended and applied common judicial instructions intended to help the jury accurately evaluate the evidence given by a rape complainant without being influenced by legally irrelevant stereotypes about the complainant's emotional demeanor. We hypothesized that a trauma education instruction would improve participants' trauma knowledge and reduce participants' reliance on stereotypes to evaluate the complainant's evidence compared with standard witness instructions given about evaluating the credibility of witnesses at trial. In Study 1 (N = 165), participants were asked to read one of three judicial instructions (trauma education, stereotype education, or standard) and their comprehension of the instruction was assessed. In Study 2 (N = 1085), participants were asked to decide a typical adult rape case in which the complainant was distressed or unemotional after receiving one of three types of judicial instructions (no specific witness instruction, standard witness, or trauma education instruction). Across both studies, we found that trauma education instructions improved participants' trauma knowledge. Unexpectedly, we found that both the standard witness and trauma education instructions reduced the extent to which participants were influenced by stereotypes in evaluating the complainant's credibility but reduced perceptions of the complainant's credibility. These findings highlight the need for ongoing evaluation of educational instructions to ensure that they operate as intended to help jurors make accurate decisions in criminal trials.