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“She Is his Girlfriend—I Believe this Is a Different Situation”: Gender Differences in Perceptions of the Legality of Intimate Partner Rape

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Abstract

Despite the alarming problem of intimate partner rape (IPR), there is a dearth of empirical data investigating how jury-eligible individuals perceive IPR in a courtroom setting. In particular, very little research has addressed IPR beyond the scope of marital rape. Thus, we investigated how community members perceived intimate partner rape involving both a married and non-married couple in a mock trial context. In Experiment 1, 129 participants (78 women) read a trial summary describing an intimate partner rape that differed as to whether the victim and defendant were married or in a cohabiting, non-marital relationship. In Experiment 2, which involved the same methods as Experiment 1, we gave 153 participants (79 women) four verdict options: not guilty, guilty of Rape in the First-Degree, Intimate Partner Rape, or Sexual Misconduct. In both experiments, women were more likely to render guilty verdicts than men and yielded more pro-victim/anti-defendant judgments. Participants did not perceive the case differently between the marital status conditions. In Experiment 2, the presence of other guilty verdict choices influenced both men and women’s guilt decisions. The proportion of women who found the defendant not guilty of any crime decreased by over 50% in Experiment 2, while the proportion of men who found the defendant not guilty remained stable across experiments. The results suggest that few men and women are willing to convict the defendant of Rape in the First-Degree—especially when presented with other, lesser sexual crime options—and that the victim and defendant’s intimate relationship is a mitigating factor causing mock jurors to view IPR as a lesser, sexual crime different to felony rape.

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Notes

  1. Sexual aggression is perpetrated by women towards men. However, it is less frequent than sexual aggression perpetrated by men towards women and receives significantly less attention in the research literature.

  2. The NVAWS defines an intimate partner as current and former dates, spouses, and cohabiting partners, with cohabiting meaning living together at least some of the time as a couple. This definition also includes both same-sex and opposite sex couples.

  3. A power analysis suggested N = 140 as a sufficient sample size to detect medium effect sizes for gender differences in perceptions of the trial ratings

  4. The full trial summary is available to readers upon request to the corresponding author

  5. Participant’s marital status was tested as a moderator for all logistic and linear regressions in both experiments but no significant interactions were detected.

  6. The table describing the full results of the multinomial regression analyses is available upon request to the corresponding author

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminal Justice, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, 78249, USA

    Kellie R. Lynch

  2. Department of Criminal Justice, University of Texas at San Antonio, 501 W. Cesar E. Chavez Blvd, San Antonio, TX, 78207, USA

    Kellie R. Lynch

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA

    Jonathan M. Golding

  4. Navy Experimental Diving Unit, United States Navy, Washington, DC, USA

    Jenna A. Jewell

  5. Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, USA

    Anne Lippert

  6. Department of Psychology, Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, MA, USA

    Nesa E. Wasarhaley

Authors
  1. Kellie R. Lynch
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  2. Jonathan M. Golding
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  3. Jenna A. Jewell
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  4. Anne Lippert
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  5. Nesa E. Wasarhaley
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Correspondence to Kellie R. Lynch.

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Lynch, K.R., Golding, J.M., Jewell, J.A. et al. “She Is his Girlfriend—I Believe this Is a Different Situation”: Gender Differences in Perceptions of the Legality of Intimate Partner Rape. J Fam Viol 34, 213–230 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-018-0006-0

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