Effects of defendant and victim race on perceptions of juvenile sex offenders

Abstract

We investigated effects of defendant race, victim race, and juror gender on public perceptions of a juvenile sex offense. We predicted that participants, particularly men, would support registering a juvenile defendant as a sex offender more when he was Black than White and that participants, particularly women, would support registering the defendant more when the female crime victim was portrayed as White than as Black. We also expected that support for registration would be higher when the defendant and victim were different races than when they were the same race. As expected, women (but not men) recommended registration more when the victim was White than Black. Further, participants supported registration more when the defendant and the victim were different races than when they were the same race. These effects were mediated by retributive goals to punish the offender-not by utilitarian goals to protect society. Explanations and implications are discussed.