We examined the impact of attorney gender on perceptions of a criminal rape trial. Community members (N = 208) read a trial summary describing a rape scenario in which the gender of the prosecuting and defense attorney were manipulated. The results revealed indirect effects of prosecuting and defense attorney gender on verdict through perceptions of characteristics related to attorney competency. Qualitative analyses further showed that the terms “strength” and “powerful” were central to juror perceptions of male attorneys, whereas the terms “sensitive” and “sympathy” were central when the attorneys were female.
BerinskyA. J.HuberG. A.LenzG. S. (2012). Evaluating online labor markets for experimental research: Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk. Political Analysis, 20(3), 351–368. https://doi.org/10.1093/pan/mpr057
4.
BlackM. C.BasileK. C.BreidingM. J.SmithS. G.WaltersM. L.MerrickM. T.ChenJ.StevensM. R. (2011). The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS): 2010 Summary Report. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
5.
BornsteinB. H.GoldingJ. M.NeuschatzJ.KimbroughC.ReedK.MagyaricsC.LuechtK. (2017). Mock juror sampling issues in jury simulation research: A meta-analysis. Law and Human Behavior, 41(1), 13–28. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000223
6.
BreidingM. J.SmithS. G.BasileK. C.WaltersM. L.ChenJ.MerrickM. (2014). Prevalence and characteristics of sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence victimization – national intimate partner and sexual violence survey, United States, 2011. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) Surveillance Summaries, 63(8), 1–18. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss6308.pdf
7.
BrownR. L.CampbellS. (1997). How the public views female and black attorneys. Arkansas Lawyer, 32(4), 22–24.
Daftary-KapurT.DumasR.PenrodS. (2010). Jury decision-making biases and methods to counter them. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 15(1), 133–154. https://doi.org/10.1348/135532509X465624
10.
DaviesM.RogersP. (2006). Perceptions of male victims in depicted sexual assaults: A review of the literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 11(4), 367–377. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2006.01.002
EckesT. (2002). Paternalistic and envious gender stereotypes: Testing predictions from the stereotype content model. Sex Roles, 47(3–4), 99–114. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021020920715
13.
FaulF.ErdfelderE.BuchnerA.LangA. (2009). Statistical power analyses using G*Power 3.1: Tests for correlation and regression analyses. Behavior Research Methods, 41(4), 1149–1160. https://doi.org/10.3758/BRM.41.4.1149
14.
FiskeS. (2018). Stereotype content: Warmth and competence endure. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(2), 67–73. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721417738825
15.
FiskeS.CuddyA.GlickP. (2007). Universal dimensions of social cognition: Warmth and competence. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 11(2), 77–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2006.11.005
16.
FiskeS.CuddyA.GlickP.XuJ. (2002). A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: Competence and warmth respectively follow from perceived status and competition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 878–902. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.82.6.878
17.
FordM. C. (1986). The role of extralegal factors in jury verdicts. The Justice System Journal, 11(1), 16–39. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27976554
18.
GerberG. L.CroninJ. M.SteigmanH. J. (2004). Attributions of blame in sexual assault to perpetrators and victims of both genders. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 34(10), 2149–2165. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2004.tb02694.x
19.
GoldingJ. M.LynchK. R.RenzettiC. M.PalsA. M. (in press). Beyond the stranger in the woods: Investigating the complexity of adult rape cases in the courtroom. In BornsteinB. H.MillerM. K. (Eds.), Advances in psychology and law (Vol. 6). Springer.
20.
GoldingJ. M.LynchK. R.WasarhaleyN. E.KellerP. S. (2015). Courtroom perceptions of child sexual assault: The impact of an eyewitness. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 42(7), 763–781. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854814568552
21.
GoldingJ. M.WasarhaleyN. E.LynchK. R.LippertA.MagyaricsC. L. (2015). Improving the credibility of child sexual assault victims in court: The impact of a sexual assault nurse examiner. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 33(4), 493–507. https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.2188
22.
HahnP.ClaytonS. (1996). The effects of attorney presentation style, attorney gender, and juror gender on juror decisions. Law and Human Behavior, 20(5), 533–554. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01499040
23.
HannonR.HallD. S.NashH.FormatiJ.HopsonT. (2000). Judgments regarding sexual aggression as a function of sex of aggressor and victim. Sex Roles, 43(5), 311–322. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026643225329
24.
HayesA. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. Guilford Press.
25.
HodgsonS.PryorB. (1984). Sex discrimination in the courtroom: Attorney’s gender and credibility. Psychological Reports, 55(2), 483–486. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1984.55.2.483
26.
LearyM. (2020). Is the #MeToo movement for real? Implications for Juror’s biases in sexual assault cases. Louisiana Law Review, 81(1), 1–38. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3721433
27.
LeverickF. (2020). What do we know about rape myths and juror decision making?The International Journal of Evidence & Proof, 24(3), 255–279. https://doi.org/10.1177/1365712720923157
28.
LynchK. R.JewellJ. A.WasarhaleyN. E.GoldingJ. M.RenzettiC. M. (2020). Great sexpectations: The impact of participant gender, defendant desirability, and date cost on attributions of a date rape victim and defendant. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 35(17–18), 3437–3461. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260517709800
29.
Matlab. (2012). The MathWorks, Inc.
30.
MagyaricsC. L.LynchK. R.GoldingJ. M.LippertA. (2015). The impact of frequency of behavior and type of contact on judgments involving a criminal stalking case. Law and Human Behavior, 39(6), 602–613. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000151
31.
MartinS. E.JurikN. C. (2007). Women entering the legal profession: Change and resistance. In Doing justice, doing gender: Women in legal and criminal justice occupations (pp. 107–132). Sage Publications, Inc. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452204185.n5
32.
MorganR.OudekerkB. (2019). Criminal victimization, 2018. U.S. Department of Justice.
33.
MorganR.TrumanJ. (2018). Criminal victimization, 2017. U.S. Department of Justice.
ReichJ. A.SchramD. D.LawB., & Justice Study Center. (1978). Forcible rape: Prosecutor administrative and policy issues (Prosecutors’ Vol. 3). United States Department of Justice.
37.
RennisonC. M. (2002). Rape and sexual assault: Reporting to police and medical attention, 1992–2000 [NCJ 194530]. Retrieved from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics: https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/rsarp00.pdf
38.
SalernoJ.PhalenH.ReyesR.SchweitzerN. (2018). Closing with emotion: The differential impact of male versus female attorneys expressing anger in court. Law and Human Behavior, 42(4), 385–401. https://doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000292
39.
SchneiderL. J.Soh-Chiew EeJ.AronsonH. (1994). Effects of victim gender and physical vs. Psychological trauma/injury on observers’ perceptions of sexual assault and its aftereffects. Sex Roles, 30(11–12), 793–808. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01544232
40.
SchvaneveldtR. W. (1990). Pathfinder associative networks: Studies in knowledge organization. Ablex.
41.
SumoskiD. M. (2001). Bridging the gender gap. Litigation, 27(3), 31–67. https://www.jstor.org/stable/29760213
42.
TjadenP.ThoennesN. (2006). Extent, nature, and consequences of rape victimization: Findings from the national violence against women survey. U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice.
43.
TrahanA.StewartD. (2011). Examining capital jurors’ impressions of attorneys’ personal characteristics and their impact on sentencing outcomes. Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice, 7(2), 93–105. http://dev.cjcenter.org/_files/apcj/APCJ%207-2pdfTRAHAN.pdf_1324066292.pdf
VenN.MeijsM.VingerhoetsA. (2017). What emotional tears convey: Tearful individuals are seen as warmer, but also as less competent. British Journal of Social Psychology, 56(1), 146–160. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12162
46.
VillemurN.HydeK. (1983). Effects of sex of defense attorney, sex of juror, and age and attractiveness of the victim on mock juror decision making in a rape case. Sex Roles, 9(8), 879–889. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00289961
