L’effet du sexe et de l’orientation sexuelle sur les jugements de responsabilité et l’attribution de sanctions dans les homicides conjugaux

Introduction

Anglo-Saxon research shows that the evaluation of intimate partner violence varies according to the gender of the perpetrator and the victim.

Objective

The purpose of this research was to clarify, in the French context, the effects of gender and sexual orientation on the perception of and reaction to intimate partner homicide.

Method

We presented 201 subjects with an intimate partner homicide in a between-subjects procedure in which the sex of the perpetrator and the victim was varied and which involved opposite- or same-sex couples. The subjects were then asked to judge the perpetrator and the victim and decide on punishment.

Results

The results show that the judgments of responsibility and punishment assignments are the most severe when the perpetrator is a man, the victim a woman, the least severe when the perpetrator is a woman, the victim a man. This difference is more present for women than for men. It is noted that the judgments for the author in the couples of same-sex (lesbian and especially gay) are more moderate, being most often between those of the couples of opposite sex.

Conclusion

In discussion, the impact of the sociological reality of intimate partner violence, gender representations and penal philosophies on these judgments and the interest of sensitizing judicial actors and jurors to these gender-related effects are evoked.