The Effect of Gender and Gender Congruence on Judgments of Legal Insanity

Date of Award

2003

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Harley, Heidi

Keywords

Insanity, Gender, Juries

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

Sixty-nine participants rated 1 of 4 homicide defendants on how closely they met the legal criteria for insanity. The defendants were presented as either male or female. The murder was consistent (congruent) or inconsistent (incongruent) with the type of homicide typically committed by defendants of the gender in which they were presented. The most likely defendant to be found insane was the congruent female defendant. The least likely to be found insane was the congruent male defendant. Participants rated the defendant that was of their own gender similarly regardless of the congruence of the homicide. They rated the defendant of the opposite gender similarly to the defendants that shared their gender when the opposite gender defendant behaved in an incongruent manner. This suggests that participants were less able or willing to make decisions regarding the mental state of defendants that neither were nor behaved like an individual of the participant's own gender.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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