Sentencing in Indecent Assault Cases: The Impact of Age and Race across Victim, Defendant and Juror

TL;DRAbstract

Sentencing in Indecent Assault cases: The Impact of Age and Race across Victim, Defendant and Juror The subjective nature of sexual assault means people have strong views on what constitutes this assault with research showing that the use of extra-legal variables such as age or race can impact significantly on sentencing. In the present study 219 participants aged 17-68 (M = 24.13, SD = 11.46) collected through two sources (subject pool, social media), read one of six vignettes depicting a sexual assault in which the race of the male defendant (White Caucasian, Indigenous, Asian) and age of the female victim (30years, 70years) were varied. Participants responded to a series of questions related to sentencing and their beliefs in rape myths, racism and attitudes towards women. A 3 (Defendant Race) x 2 (Victim Age) x 2 (Data Group) between-subjects design found that participants in the older, social media group were more likely to give a lenient sentence overall than were the younger 1st

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