Abstract
The present chapter reviews experimental research investigating the complexities and phenomena influencing legal decision-making involving an outcome measure (e.g., verdict, guilt rating, and/or sentence recommendation) in cases of adult rape. Because rape is a crime subject to social bias, myths, and cultural beliefs, rape cases are vulnerable to the influence of extralegal factors (i.e., not within the scope of the law) when making judgments. Major theoretical perspectives (e.g., the Story Model, the Commonsense Justice model, and the theory of Generic Prejudice) concerning legal decision-making and rape are presented, as well as methodological details of existing legal decision-making research. Coverage of prior research involving extralegal factors includes investigations of the influence of mock juror characteristics (e.g., mock juror gender), acquaintance rape (including victim and defendant characteristics and contextual factors such as intoxication), intimate partner rape, non-heteronormative rape, and legal issues that arise in both a criminal trial context (e.g., sentencing) and outside of this context (e.g., civil trials). The chapter concludes with a discussion of avenues for future research and the practical implications of research investigating perceptions of rape cases.
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Golding, J.M., Lynch, K.R., Renzetti, C.M., Pals, A.M. (2022). Beyond the Stranger in the Woods: Investigating the Complexity of Adult Rape Cases in the Courtroom. In: Bornstein, B.H., Miller, M.K., DeMatteo, D. (eds) Advances in Psychology and Law. Advances in Psychology and Law, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13733-4_1
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