Courtroom Perceptions and Decisions: The Effects of Perspective Taking, Victim Impact Statement Content, and Victim Gender

Bendremer, Emily

Student Work

Courtroom Perceptions and Decisions: The Effects of Perspective Taking, Victim Impact Statement Content, and Victim Gender

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Controversy surrounding the implications of victim impact statements (VIS) suggests that additional research is needed to further determine the extent to which the content of these statements can influence courtroom perceptions and decisions. Past research shows that when victims present a VIS, the jury and judge view a victim favorably and give a more extreme punishment to the defendant (Myers & Greene, 2004). Research has also found that participants view the person they have been asked to perspective take with more favorably, whether it be the defendant or the victim (Skorinko et al., 2014). Other studies have found that jurors might interpret anger differently depending on victim and juror gender (Chaplin, 2015; Deng et al., 2016; Peace & Forrester, 2012; Skorinko et al., 2014). The present study investigated if the outcome of a trial is influenced by the interaction between angry content in a victim impact statement (anger or no anger), the gender of the victim (male or female), and who the jurors are told to perspective take with (defendant, victim, or no one). A total of 295 jury-eligible participants completed the study. The results of this study show that combinations of victim impact statement content, perspective taking, and victim gender produce significant results in some cases; however, since the results were somewhat unpredictable, we believe that additional research is needed to more definitively say how these conditions influence each other in the courtroom.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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