Stand Your Ground Case Views
Stand Your Ground (SYG) laws which are used to allow an individual to defend themselves against anyone they believe to be an imminent threat in their dwelling or on their property, are presently growing throughout the United State. However, archival research has suggested that defense strategies based on SYG laws and are biased against people of color and women. This study aims to investigate mock jurors’ perceptions of a SYG homicide case summary where the defendant’s race and gender are manipulated. Racist and sexist attitudes will also be investigated as mediators between defendant demographics and case outcomes.
Mock Jurors' Perceptions of Race and SES in a Sexual Assault Case
Consistently, socioeconomic status (SES) has proven to have a substantial impact on laypeoples’ views of defendant culpability (Espinoza et. al., 2015). However, currently there is very little research on this impact of SES within sexual assault cases, especially in relation to populations of Native American individuals. The proposed research will investigate the influence of defendant SES and race on mock jurors’ legal judgements for a sexual assault case. Additional attitudinal surveys will be used. The study’s findings may be used to educate students, community members, and legal professionals about the impact of SES and race in a sexually-based criminal case.