Citation

Golding JM, Lynch KR, Wasarhaley NE. J. Interpers. Violence 2016; 31(19): 3129-3149.

Affiliation

Bridgewater State University, MA, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0886260515584342

PMID

25944837

Abstract

The present study investigated the impact of impeaching a rape victim with evidence of a simultaneous civil suit during a criminal trial. In three experiments, male and female undergraduates (Experiment 1) and community members (Experiments 2 and 3) read a rape trial summary in which the victim accused the defendant of raping her in a hotel. In the impeachment condition, the Defense mentioned that the victim simultaneously sued either the hotel (Experiments 1, 2, 3) or the alleged perpetrator (Experiment 3) for US$1 million. In the control condition, the Defense did not mention a civil suit. In all experiments, mock jurors were more likely to render not guilty verdicts and had higher pro-defendant ratings (e.g., defendant credibility) when the Defense impeached the victim than when the Defense did not impeach her. In addition, victim credibility (Experiments 1, 2, 3) and victim greed (Experiment 3) mediated the impact of impeachment on verdict.

RESULTS are discussed in terms of the prejudice rape victims may face in criminal court when they also seek justice in civil court.

Language: en