Date of Award
4-2023
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts - Psychology
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Steven Estrada
Second Advisor
Scott Drury
Third Advisor
Scott Hutchens
Fourth Advisor
George Day
Abstract
Victim impact statements (VIS) are federally protected statements describing the physical, emotional, and financial impact of a crime on a victim. States can decide the content and timing of the VIS, resulting in much variation. Previous research has found an effect of these variations on mock juror bias in capital trials. The current study examined if variations such as changing the strength of emotion, crime type, and including sentencing recommendation within a VIS affects the judgements of mock jurors. The results showed the sexual assault VIS produced higher guilt ratings and longer sentences. Furthermore, the inclusion of a high sentencing recommendation produced longer sentences. Additionally, guilt ratings were increased by the interaction of emotionality and anchor within the VIS. The results of this study suggest that variations in the implementation and presentation of VIS across states may be impacting the fairness of criminal trials and the rights of defendants.
Repository Citation
Sutton, Emily, "The Effects of Variations of Victim Impact Statements on Juror Bias" (2023). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 496.
https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/496
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
