The Effects of Victim Gender Identity, Juror Gender, and Judicial Instructions on Victim Blaming, Crime Severity Ratings, and Verdicts in Sexual Assault Trials

Transgender individuals may experience social discrimination and unfair legal considerations as crime victims. The current purpose was to investigate the relationship between the participant/jurors' gender, the victims' gender identity, and judge's instructions to ignore the gender id...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of homosexuality 2023-05, Vol.70 (6), p.1187-1224
Main Authors: Carter, Lisa M., Goodmon, Leilani B., Urs, Medhini, Rutledge-Jukes, Heath
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cisgender
cisgender victims
Convictions
Court decisions
Crime
Crime Victims
Criminal sentences
Decision Making
Discrimination
Female
Gender Identity
Humans
Judges & magistrates
judicial instructions
Judicial Role
Jurors
jury/juror verdicts
Male
Males
Ratings & rankings
Severity
Sex crimes
Sex Offenses
Sexual and Gender Minorities
sexual assault
Transgender persons
Transgender victims
Trials
victim blaming
Victims
Victims of crime
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:Transgender individuals may experience social discrimination and unfair legal considerations as crime victims. The current purpose was to investigate the relationship between the participant/jurors' gender, the victims' gender identity, and judge's instructions to ignore the gender identity of the victim on perceptions of the victim and the crime and verdicts rendered in a sexual assault case. Overall, crime severity ratings were significantly lower for the trans male victim compared to the cisgender female victim. Male participants reported lower crime severity ratings for trials involving transgender victims compared to cisgender victims. However, victim blaming, likelihood that the defendant committed the crime, sentencing recommendations, verdict confidence, and conviction rates did not vary by the victim's gender identity, the participant's gender identity, nor the judge's instructions. Participant gender as a predictor of verdict approached significance, indicating a trend for males to render more not guilty verdicts and females to render more guilty verdicts. In summary, male jurors perceived the crimes involving transgender victims as less severe and this may have impacted the rate of not guilty verdicts.
ISSN:0091-8369
1540-3602
DOI:10.1080/00918369.2021.2018877