ISSN : 2093-3843
The purpose of this study is to compare the current victims' rights guide, which was revised during 2019, with former victims' rights guide to determine whether the current guide improved the comprehension of victims' rights among lay people. In addition, we examined the effect of the level of education and perceived stress on the comprehension of the victims' rights. A total of 289 participants were asked to answer a series of questions to examine their comprehension level of the victim's rights and to measure their level of education and perceived stress level. The results showed that the objective comprehension level the current guide condition was higher than the former one, but no difference was found with the subjective comprehension level. The interaction effect between conditions of the guide and educational level was not found on the objective comprehension of the victims' rights. The effect of the conditions of the guide on the subjective comprehension of victims' rights indicated a tendency to decrease by perceived stress. Finally, policy implications and limitations of this study were also discussed.
The Statement evidence is an important method of proof in the criminal investigation and trial. Under certain conditions set by Korean Criminal Procedure Law, paper records of interrogations are admissible in criminal courts. However, it is shown that distortions are ever-present in paper records. Therefore, this study attempted to examine the effect of the investigator’s belief about the veracity of a suspect on distortions of paper records. Ninety police investigators were randomly allocated into one of the three conditions(‘guilty belief’, ‘innocent belief’, ‘neutral belief’), and all the investigators were then asked to document a paper record while watching a prefilmed interrogation interview of the crime. The results showed that (1) the investigator’s belief had significant effects on distortions. (2) All groups did more commissions than omissions. (3) matters subject to interrogation also had significant effects on distortions. In the conclusion, implications and limitations of the study were disscussed.
Child sexual abuse (CSA), under the age of 13, has increased over the past ten years, but research on the perceptions of perpetrators and victims have mainly focused on sexual violence against adults. Differentiating the age of the perpetrator into child, adolescent, and adult, the present study examined differences in perceptions of perpetrators and victims of child sexual abuse. The study also investigated differences by the gender of respondents, and examined the effects of Sexual Violence Myths (SVM) and Authoritarian Personality on perceptions of child sexual abuse. A total of 210 people in their 20s to 60s evaluated the degree to perpetrator blaming, perpetrator punishment, victim responsibility, and pain of the victim, and responded to the SVM scale and Authoritarian Personality scale. The correlation analysis, one-way ANOVA, independent samples t-test, and mediation analysis were conducted. The difference in the perception of perpetrator punishment by the age of the perpetrator was significant, indicating that respondents thought that adolescent perpetrators should be more severely punished than child perpetrators. Male respondents compared to female respondents were more likely to attribute the responsibility of sexual assault to the victim, to accept sexual violence myths and to be authoritarian. Sexual Violence Myths mediated the effects of the gender of respondents on the perception of victim responsibility, and Authoritarian Personality moderated these mediation effects. Finally, the limitations and implications of the study were discussed.
Rape myth acceptance may influence victims are treated and perpetrator blamed and sentenced. And this relationship could be moderated by victim’s deviant behavior before rape such as teenage running away from home or drinking alcohol. The present study examined the relationship among rape myth, deviant behavior, blaming victim, pain of victim, responsibility and blame for perpetrator and punishment for the perpetrator. Findings suggest that participants with high rape myth acceptance compared to participants with low rape myth acceptance blamed victim more and blamed and thought responsible the perpetrator less. And this relationship was only significant when the victim had deviant behavior before rape happened. This result shows that specific information(deviant behaior) about victim could trigger rape myth to blame victim and judge the perpetrator leniently. The suggestions for future research and limitations were discussed.
When a person suggests an estimate under uncertainty, (s)he tend to rely on the information and number provided in advance. As a result, their final estimate would be assimilated to the initial value. This phenomenon is called “anchoring effect”. The present research examined anchoring effects observed in law courts. Sentencing decision of jurors can be influenced by the sentence demanded by the prosecutor. Specifically, this study demonstrated the condition in which anchoring effect would be stronger and practical solutions for lowering anchoring effect. Study 1 demonstrated whether gravity of criminal cases and levels of anchor influenced anchoring effects. As expected, anchoring effect was stronger in a heavier criminal case than in a lighter one. When a low anchor was provided in a lighter case, anchoring effect was stronger compared to when a high anchor was provided. Study 2 examined how emotion affects anchoring effects. The results showed that anchoring effect appeared to be significantly stronger with feelings of anger than of sadness. Study 3 examined the solution for reducing anchoring effects in a court. When activation of selective-accessibility model was prevented, anchoring effects significantly decreased. These results can help solve the problems about juror judgmental bias and contribute to the development of Korean jury trial.
This study was to test the effects of unanticipated questions on the number of general and verifiable details. In addition, the number of verifiable details would discriminate truth-tellers and liars more accurately than the number of general details. In a 2(Veracity: truth vs. lie) X 2(Question type: Expected questions vs. Unexpected questions) mixed-design study, truth tellers(N=40) were asked to visit a cafe on campus and liars(N=40) were told to fabricated a story as if they visited the cafe. Then, participants were interviewed about their trip to the cafe and asked four questions(two anticipated questions: ‘report the trip in detail’, ‘describe the place’; two unanticipated questions: ‘recall in reverse order’, ‘report verifiable details’). Each participant’s statements were transcribed and coded by trained graduate students for the number of general details and verifiable details. The results showed that truth-tellers mentioned significantly more general details than liars regardless of the question type. On the contrary, there was no significant difference between liars and truth-tellers in the number of verifiable details. High percentages of truth-tellers(62.5%) and liars(80.0%) were classified correctly based on the number of general details whereas only 45.0% of truth tellers and 62.5% of liars were accurately classified by the number of verifiable details. Liars were found to speak more words when asked to provide verifiable details compared to a general open question, but the number of general details did not seem to increase accordingly. The limitations of this study and future research directions were discussed.