RT Article
T1 Gender Role Attitudes and Prosecutorial Decision-Making in a Case of Intimate Partner Violence
JF Journal of interpersonal violence
VO 39
IS 7/8
SP 1496
OP 1518
A1 MacNeil, Elizabeth Rose
A2 Cox, Jennifer
A2 Daquin, Jane C.
A2 Neal, Tess M. S.
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1882928946
AB Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a pervasive public health crisis that impacts individuals across the gender spectrum. Traditionally, IPV is conceptualized through a gendered lens, with men as the perpetrators and women as the victims. The current study explored the association between perpetrator/victim sex, prosecutor gender role attitudes, and prosecutorial decision-making in a case of alleged IPV. We hypothesized that prosecutors with more traditional gender role attitudes would be more lenient, and this effect to be exacerbated in cases involving a female perpetrator. Criminal prosecutors across the United States (N = 94) completed the Male Role Norms Inventory—Revised and read case materials describing the alleged IPV between a heterosexual couple (e.g., arrest report, medical records). The victim/perpetrator sex was manipulated to involve either a female- (male victim) or male- (female victim) perpetrated IPV case. Results indicate that gender role attitudes were not associated with prosecutorial decision-making. However, prosecutors perceived the violence as more serious and the perpetrator as more likely to reoffend when the perpetrator was male; further, they attributed more blame to the female victim. An interaction between perpetrator sex and prosecutor gender role attitudes indicates those with more traditional beliefs were more likely to blame the female (rather than male) victim. These data suggest extralegal factors related to the perpetrator (i.e., perpetrator sex), rather than prosecutor individual differences (i.e., gender role attitudes), are associated with prosecutor discretionary decision-making. In tandem with real-world disparities in the prosecution of IPV based on perpetrator sex, the current research stresses the importance of exploring a diversity of factors that account for these observed differences.
K1 Sex
K1 gender role attitudes
K1 Intimate Partner Violence
K1 Male Role Norms Inventory-Revised
K1 Decision-making
K1 Prosecutorial Discretion
K1 Prosecutor
DO 10.1177/08862605231207901