Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3624-9188
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1037/law0000024
Abstract
We conducted a simulated trial study to investigate the effectiveness of a “gay-panic” provocation defense as a function of jurors’ political orientation. Mock jurors read about a murder case in which a male defendant claimed a victim provoked the killing by starting a fight, which either included or did not include the male victim making an unwanted sexual advance that triggered a state of panic in the defendant. Conservative jurors were significantly less punitive when the defendant claimed to have acted out of gay panic as compared to when this element was not part of the defense. In contrast, liberal jurors were unaffected by the gay-panic manipulation. The effect of the gay-panic defense on punitiveness was mediated by conservatives’ decreased moral outrage toward the defendant. Implications for psychological theory and the legal system are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Najdowski, Cynthia J.; Salerno, Jessica; Bottoms, Bette L.; Harrington, B. L.; and Kemner, Dave, "Excusing murder? Conservative Jurors’ Acceptance of the Gay Panic Defense" (2015). Psychology Faculty Scholarship. 9.
https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/psychology_fac_scholar/9
Included in
American Politics Commons, Courts Commons, Criminal Law Commons, Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons, Law and Politics Commons, Law and Psychology Commons, Personality and Social Contexts Commons, Sexuality and the Law Commons, Social Justice Commons, Social Psychology Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons
Terms of Use
This work is made available under the Scholars Archive Terms of Use.
Comments
Publisher Acknowledgement:
This is the Author’s Original Manuscript. The version of the record appears here: Salerno, J. M., Najdowski, C. J., Bottoms, B. L., Harrington, E., Kemner, G.,* & Dave, R. (2015). Excusing murder? Conservative jurors’ acceptance of the gay panic defense. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 21, 24-34. https://doi.org/10.1037/law0000024