Abstract
The present study examined whether country of residence, sex trafficking attitudes, complainant gender, juror gender, and right-wing authoritarianism influenced juror decision-making within a sex trafficking case.
Jury-eligible participants from the United States and United Kingdom participated in an online juror experiment in which an independent groups design was used to manipulate the complainant’s gender. Participants completed the Juror Decision Scale, the Sex Trafficking Attitudes Scale, and the Right-Wing Authoritarianism scale.
Sex trafficking attitudes predicted believability of both the defendant and complainant. Greater negative beliefs about victims predicted greater defendant believability and lower complainant believability. U.S. jurors reported greater believability of both the complainant and defendant, and right-wing authoritarianism was associated with greater defendant believability. However, none of the other factors, including complainant and juror gender, predicted participants’ verdicts. The findings suggest juror verdicts in sex trafficking cases may be less influenced by extra-legal factors, although further research is needed, especially with a more ambiguous case.
This is one of few cross-cultural comparison studies in the area of jury decision-making, and specifically regarding sex trafficking cases. The findings indicated that U.S. participants held more problematic attitudes about sex trafficking than their U.K. counterparts, although all participants held problematic attitudes about sex trafficking. However, those attitudes did not affect verdict formation about either a male or female complainant. Participants who were more knowledgeable about sex trafficking reported greater complainant believability, suggesting that educational interventions may provide greater support toward victims in court.