NCJ Number
198920
Journal
Sex Offender Law Report Volume: 3 Issue: 5 Dated: August/September 2002 Pages: 65-66,77,78
Editor(s)
Douglas D. Koski J.D.
Date Published
August 2002
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article explores the effects, both presumed and demonstrated, of jurors’ attitudes as elements in the decision-making process in the crime of rape and the consent defense.
Abstract
In two previous articles in an ongoing series on jury decision-making in rape trials, some of the pitfalls and shortcomings that have developed in the process of determining justice by means of trial by jury, specifically as presented in consent defense rape cases, were examined. In addition, a review of literature which explored the psychology of jurors in the decision making process, the factors affecting juror attitudes, and the role of juror attitudes in reaching verdicts was presented. In this third article in the series, the effects of juror attitudes in regards to the decision-making process is examined, as well as an examination initiated on jurors’ attitudes toward the victim and the extent to which they may hold the victim responsible for the crime. The article begins first with a look at whether attitudes predict decision-making behavior followed by an examination of juror attitudes and other variables in decision-making, the attribution of blame and the problem of “victim legitimacy,” and the legitimacy of the victim’s status in the jury’s eyes being related to the verdict. References