Bullies on trial

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine mock jurors’ decisions when faced with a case involving a bully charged with the suicide death of a victim. Mock jurors read a fictional trial transcript detailing the final months of the victim’s life, in which the 16-year-old victim was repeatedly bullied by the 18-year-old defendant. Manipulations included: sex of the victim and defendant (i.e. both were female or both were male), nature of the bullying (i.e. directly threatening to kill the victim or indirectly telling the victim to kill himself), and the medium used by the bully (i.e. no bullying occurred online or some bullying occurred with the use of the internet). Most mock jurors were in favor of convicting the defendant, particularly when both parties were male and the defendant was accused of repeatedly telling the victim to kill himself both on- and offline. Over 80 percent of the mock jurors stated that they would like to see bullies incur criminal charges. Approximately 50 percent indicated that they felt a charge as severe as manslaughter was warranted in cases where the victim commits suicide.