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The Effects of Child Race, Child Age, and Defendant Race on Mock Jurors’ Decisions for a Child Sexual Abuse Case

Call, Alissa Anderson

Abstract Details

2018, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, Psychology - Experimental.
In the extant literature on mock jurors’ perceptions of child sexual abuse victims, little attention has been paid to the potential impact of child race on legal judgments. The present research investigated the influence of child race (Black vs. White), defendant race (Black vs. White), and child age (12 years vs. 17 years) on mock jurors’ legal judgments for a hypothetical teacher-student sexual abuse case. Child race did not solely impact mock jurors’ legal judgments or perceptions of the mock CSA case, but did interact with other variables to influence case outcomes and mock jurors’ perceptions. Child age directly affected legal judgments and interacted with additional extralegal factors as well as mock juror gender. No significant main effects of defendant race were observed in the present study, yet this extralegal factor interacted with child race and age to impact mock jurors’ defendant guilt ratings. Mock juror gender differences as well as mock jurors’ racial and authoritarian attitudes, beliefs in a just world, and endorsements of racially-based sexual stereotypes were also examined in the present study. Mock juror gender differences were found for various legal judgments related to both the defendant and child complainant. Mock jurors’ endorsements of the “Jezebel” stereotype was strongly related to legal judgments for the case while mock jurors’ authoritarian attitudes, racial attitudes, and beliefs in a just world were minimally associated with their legal judgments. The study’s findings may be used to educate legal professionals—as well as jurors—on the impact of extralegal factors and individual biases in child sexual abuse cases.
Kamala London Newton, PhD (Committee Chair)
Jason Rose, PhD (Committee Member)
John Jasper, PhD (Committee Member)
Stephen Christman, PhD (Committee Member)
Jerry Van Hoy, PhD (Committee Member)
165 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Call, A. A. (2018). The Effects of Child Race, Child Age, and Defendant Race on Mock Jurors’ Decisions for a Child Sexual Abuse Case [Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1528930228675864

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Call, Alissa. The Effects of Child Race, Child Age, and Defendant Race on Mock Jurors’ Decisions for a Child Sexual Abuse Case. 2018. University of Toledo, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1528930228675864.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Call, Alissa. "The Effects of Child Race, Child Age, and Defendant Race on Mock Jurors’ Decisions for a Child Sexual Abuse Case." Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1528930228675864

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)