NCJ Number
149490
Journal
Journal of Social Psychology Volume: 133 Issue: 5 Dated: (October 1993) Pages: 627-634
Date Published
1993
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This study examined the role of racial bias in juror decisionmaking in acquaintance rape cases.
Abstract
Forty-three white male and 35 white female students read two briefs describing alleged acquaintance rape scenarios that established defendant-victim familiarity and sexual contact, but remained ambiguous about the victim's consent. Respondents then completed a questionnaire indicating their verdict, expressing the degree of confidence they had in that verdict, and sentencing the defendant. The analysis of variance assessed the effects of race of defendant, race of victim, and sex of juror on the verdict. While the results did not show that jurors automatically believed that black defendants were guilty simply because of their race, they demonstrated that the jurors considered the racial relationship between the victim and defendant and weighed this relationship against whether they believed the victim had consented to sexual contact. The data showed that jurors were more likely to convict black and white defendants if their victim was of the opposite race. 2 tables and 27 references