Psychology Commons^™

When Battered Persons Kill: The Impact Of Gender Stereotypes On Mock Juror Perceptions, Emily Catherine Hodell

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

The present experiment investigated the role of gender stereotypes in cases in which a battered person kills his or her abuser. Regression analysis revealed an overall gender bias such that mock jurors were more likely to convict a man defendant who had killed his abusive wife than they were when a woman defendant who had killed her husband. Mediational analyses indicated that the relationship between abuser gender and verdict was partially mediated by sympathy toward the victim, and fully mediated by sympathy toward the defendant. Regression analysis also revealed an effect of abuser height, such that conviction rates were higher …