{"title":"House of Worship Mass Shooting: The Influence of Defendant Age, Religion, and Victim Religion on Mock-Juror Decision-Making","authors":"Alexia Vettese, Emily Pica, Joanna Pozzulo","doi":"10.1007/s11896-024-09695-6","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Little is known about how defendant and victim religion influence juror decision-making outcomes in cases of extreme violent crime. The current study sought to examine whether defendant age (16- vs. 35-years-old), and defendant and victim religion (Christian vs. Muslim) influenced mock-jurors’ perceptions and verdict decisions in a religiously motivated mass shooting context. Participants (<i>N</i> = 321) read a mock-trial transcript describing the alleged mass shooting occurring at a place of worship. Participants were asked to provide verdict decisions, rate their perceptions of the defendant and victim, and answer questions related to religious bias and moral outrage toward the defendant. Overall, defendant religion influenced mock-jurors’ judgments such that Christian defendants received more guilty verdicts and less favourable perceptions than Muslim defendants, and victims were perceived more favourably when the defendant was Christian. Moreover, victim religion only influenced guilt ratings, such that mock-jurors were more likely to assign higher guilt ratings to a defendant when the victim was described as Muslim. Moral outrage partially mediated the effect of defendant religion and mock-juror perceptions of the defendant. The results of this study concluded that while defendant age and victim religion have little influence, defendant religion is greatly influential to juror decision-making. This research provides new insight regarding how influential defendant religion is in legal decision-making, and how moral outrage toward the defendant may have practical implications for legal decision-making.</p>","PeriodicalId":46605,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-024-09695-6","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"CRIMINOLOGY & PENOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Little is known about how defendant and victim religion influence juror decision-making outcomes in cases of extreme violent crime. The current study sought to examine whether defendant age (16- vs. 35-years-old), and defendant and victim religion (Christian vs. Muslim) influenced mock-jurors’ perceptions and verdict decisions in a religiously motivated mass shooting context. Participants (N = 321) read a mock-trial transcript describing the alleged mass shooting occurring at a place of worship. Participants were asked to provide verdict decisions, rate their perceptions of the defendant and victim, and answer questions related to religious bias and moral outrage toward the defendant. Overall, defendant religion influenced mock-jurors’ judgments such that Christian defendants received more guilty verdicts and less favourable perceptions than Muslim defendants, and victims were perceived more favourably when the defendant was Christian. Moreover, victim religion only influenced guilt ratings, such that mock-jurors were more likely to assign higher guilt ratings to a defendant when the victim was described as Muslim. Moral outrage partially mediated the effect of defendant religion and mock-juror perceptions of the defendant. The results of this study concluded that while defendant age and victim religion have little influence, defendant religion is greatly influential to juror decision-making. This research provides new insight regarding how influential defendant religion is in legal decision-making, and how moral outrage toward the defendant may have practical implications for legal decision-making.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology is a peer-reviewed journal that reports research findings regarding the theory, practice and application of psychological issues in the criminal justice context, namely law enforcement, courts, and corrections. The Journal encourages submissions focusing on Police Psychology including personnel assessment, therapeutic methods, training, ethics and effective organizational operation. The Journal also welcomes articles that focus on criminal behavior and the application of psychology to effective correctional practices and facilitating recovery among victims of crime. Consumers of and contributors to this body of research include psychologists, criminologists, sociologists, legal experts, social workers, and other professionals representing various facets of the criminal justice system, both domestic and international.