Date of Award

January 2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Cheryl Terrance

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact expert witness and victim gender had on mock jurors’ perceptions in a court case involving intimate partner violence (IPV). Participants were asked to read a mock trial transcript that included testimony of a victim and an expert and respond to questions. Results indicated that gender of the victim was oftentimes more influential on mock jurors’ perceptions than gender of the expert. For instance, the female victim was perceived as less blameworthy than the male victim regardless of expert gender. Furthermore, both the male and female expert were viewed as more credible when the victim was female rather than male. Finally, the female victim was assessed as more credible than the male victim when the expert was male, though there was no significant differences in victim credibility when the expert was female. Implications are discussed.

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