Judgments of sex trafficked women: The role of emotions.

This study examined how incidental emotions influence decisions to arrest or release sex trafficking survivors. Community members (N = 984) completed an autobiographical memory task invoking disgust, sympathy, or no emotion and read case facts from United States v. Bell (2014) varying whether the survivor had a prior history of sex work and whether she came from a vulnerable or nonvulnerable background. Participants in the vulnerable condition believed that the survivor was less able to resist the trafficker's proposal. Furthermore, women but not men made to feel disgust believed that she should have resisted. Regarding arresting the survivor for prostitution versus releasing her for services, invoking either incidental disgust or sympathy, but especially disgust, triggered feelings of disgust, which in turn predicted an arrest decision. Finally, our data supported a moderated mediation model in which the belief that the survivor should have been able to resist the trafficker predicted a greater probability of an arrest judgment. Furthermore, participants in the vulnerable condition believed that the survivor had less ability to resist, and they disfavored her arrest. However, this was only true when we invoked no emotion. When we invoked disgust, vulnerability ceased to have this moderation effect. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Stereotypes and emotions as moderators of risk and race in judgments about juvenile probationers.

Little research has explored the psychological mechanisms underlying racial disparities in the juvenile justice system. In Phase 1, of our mock officer paradigm, participants completed a stereotype content model survey comparing ratings of warmth and competence between juvenile delinquents and other social categories. In Phase 2, participants reviewed a predisposition investigation and made predictions about offender dangerousness and adherence to probation. Randomly assigned to experience fear, anger, or a neutral emotion, participants reviewed either a Black or White juvenile with no risk information versus low-, moderate-, or high-risk information. Participants stereotyped juvenile delinquents as low in warmth and competence and found those individuals extreme on these dimensions more dangerous. However, in some situations, stereotypical warmth interacted with emotions, risk, and race to exert a protective influence; in other situations, it was neutral, and in still others it was detrimental to the youth. For example, fearful participants provided lower dangerousness ratings to a White, high-risk offender as stereotypic warmth increased but this protective effect disappeared for high-risk Black offenders. Furthermore, irrespective of race, increases in warmth predicted higher dangerousness for low- and moderate-risk youth supporting the activation of a less "cold" stereotype that makes youthful offenders appear more dangerous. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

An attribution theory-based content analysis of mock jurors' deliberations regarding coerced confessions.

OBJECTIVE: Because confessions are sometimes unreliable, it is important to understand how jurors evaluate confession evidence. We conducted a content analysis testing an attribution theory model for mock jurors' discussion of coerced confession evidence in determining verdicts. HYPOTHESES: We tested exploratory hypotheses regarding mock jurors' discussion of attributions and elements of the confession. We expected that jurors' prodefense statements, external attributions (attributing the confession to coercion), and uncontrollable attributions (attributing the confession to defendant naivety) would predict more prodefense than proprosecution case judgments. We also expected that being male, politically conservative, and in support of the death penalty would predict proprosecution statements and internal attributions, which in turn would predict guilty verdicts. METHOD: Mock jurors (N = 253, Mage = 47 years; 65% women; 88% White, 10% Black, 1% Hispanic, 1% listed "other") read a murder trial synopsis, watched an actual coerced false confession, completed case judgments, and deliberated in juries of up to 12 members. We videotaped, transcribed, and reliably coded deliberations. RESULTS: Most mock jurors (53%) rendered a guilty verdict. Participants made more prodefense than proprosecution statements, more external than internal attributions, and more internal than uncontrollable attributions. Participants infrequently mentioned various elements of the interrogation (police coercion, contamination, promises of leniency, interrogation length) and psychological consequences for the defendant. Proprosecution statements and internal attributions predicted proprosecution case judgments. Women made more prodefense and external attribution statements than men, which in turn predicted diminished guilt. Political conservatives and death penalty proponents made more proprosecution statements and internal attributions than their counterparts, respectively, which in turn predicted greater guilt. CONCLUSIONS: Some jurors identified coercive elements of a false confession and rendered external attributions for a defendant's false confession (attributing the confession to the coercive interrogation) during deliberation. However, many jurors made internal attributions, attributing a defendant's false confession to his guilt-attributions that predicted juror and jury inclinations to convict an innocent defendant. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The public's judgment of sex trafficked women: Blaming the victim?

A victim-centered approach to fighting sex trafficking can result in apprehension and prosecution of traffickers and offer needed services to survivors. However, law enforcement officers frequently arrest sex-trafficking survivors for prostitution in accordance with state law. This study examined the psychology of public reactions and judgments of sex-trafficking survivors demonstrating the importance of situational factors, cognitive stereotypes, and moral emotions. Using Stereotype Content Modeling to measure the stereotypes that 762 community members held about prostitutes, we found shared stereotypes that were low in competence (i.e., capable and skilled) and warmth (i.e., good-natured and friendly). These participants later read modified case facts from United States v. Bell (United States v. Bell, 761 F.3d (8th Cir. 2014)) that varied survivor history of prostitution, vulnerability, and prostitution as a subsequent livelihood. Participants who stereotyped prostitutes as low in warmth and competence were the ones most certain police should arrest the survivor. Moral emotion analyses further showed that a survivor with no prior prostitution history and who came from a nonvulnerable background invoked disgust and contempt, which predicted a higher certainty of the arrest. Moral emotions fully mediated the relationship between the interacting case facts and arrest certainty for the trafficking survivor. Future directions and policy implications are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Understanding how social worker compassion fatigue and years of experience shape custodial decisions.

BACKGROUND: Compassion fatigue (i.e., a worker's diminished ability to empathize with clients) is common among "helping workers" and can result in psychological detachment from clients as a coping mechanism. OBJECTIVE: In the present research, we explored the relationship between social workers' compassion fatigue and years of job experience on hypothetical child custody case judgments. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: In two separate studies, individuals with experience working with children in child dependency court (predominantly social workers, Study 1: N = 173, Study 2: N = 119) were recruited on Amazon's Mechanical Turk and read a vignette depicting a mother attempting to regain custody. RESULTS: Supporting hypotheses, compassion fatigue significantly mediated the relationship between increased years of social worker job experience on recommendations that a neglectful mother receive custody, Indirect Effect = .06, CIs [.026, .127] (Study 1). We also found preliminary support for our hypothesized theoretically derived serial path model, in which (a) social worker compassion fatigue predicts anticipated secondary traumatic stress associated with the child neglect case, B = .54, p =  .0001; (b) secondary traumatic stress predicts detachment from the neglected child, B = .27, p =  .0003; (c) detachment from the child predicts job efficacy cynicism B = .65, p <  .0001; and (d) job efficacy cynicism predicts decisions to allocate custody to the neglectful mother, B = .46, p =  .005 (Study 2). CONCLUSION: Our research shows that compassion fatigue among social workers may change the lens through which they perceive cases of child abuse.