Stereotypes about Victims

Download or read book Stereotypes about Victims written by Amanda Lynn Scott and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: In three experiments, the influence of the race of victims on legal decisions is explored. Using mock jurors and fictional case summaries and transcripts, the current investigation experimentally manipulates key factors that could influence jurors' judgments about appropriate amounts of punishment and compensation. Experiment 1 demonstrates that victim race can impact legal decisions. Both victim race and the injury sustained by the victim were manipulated. In this first experiment, participants punished injuries more harshly when they inhibited a victim's ability to confirm positive expectations derived from their ethnic identity. Experiment 2 explored the distinction between civil and criminal decisionmaking. Victim race, injury suffered and the framing of the dependent variables were manipulated. Specifically, an attempt was made to reframe both criminal (sentencing decisions) and civil (compensation awards) judgments as either victim- (civil) or defendant- (criminal) focused decisions. The results of Experiment 2 suggested that participants actually punished injuries that were not related to positive aspects of the victim's group identity more harshly than injuries that were related to the abilities assumed to be positively associated with their group. This finding represents a reversal from Experiment 1. Experiment 3 was designed to reconcile the contradictory findings from Experiments 1 and 2. Both focus of processing and the presence or absence of a fairness norm were manipulated to explain why the race effect present in Experiment 1 reversed in Experiment 2. The results from this final study suggest that the effect of processing focus, rather than the presence or absence of a fairness norm, is a better explanation for the race reversal effect reported in Experiment 3. Taken together, these studies highlight the importance of a consideration of the ethnicity of victims in the legal system. In addition, the experiments demonstrate that various factors in the case, including victim ethnicity and juror processing focus can interact in interesting ways. Finally, this program of research suggests that more research about the content of the stereotype attached to the ethnicity of victim's in legal proceedings is warranted.