title: Expressed sexual assault legal context and victim culpability attributions.
abstract: Legal scholars have argued that laws have an expressive function, specifically that sexual assault laws may convey social-level messages that victims are culpable for crimes against them. In a university sample, we conducted the first experimental test of legal scholars' proposal, hypothesizing that legal messages-specifically their clarity and effectiveness in conveying that sexual assault is a crime-affect victim culpability attributions. Results demonstrated that greater culpability was attributed to a victim of sexual assault within a context expressing unclear and ineffective sexual assault law than within a context clearly and effectively expressing that sexual assault is a crime. We also garnered empirical support for a mediation model, that is, negative affective reactions to a victim statistically accounted for the relationship between expressed legal context and victim culpability attributions. Implications for future psycholegal research and potential legal reforms are discussed.
authors: Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX 77341, USA. audrey.k.miller@shsu.edu
authors: Audrey K
authors: AK
authors: Miller
authors: Keith D
authors: KD
authors: Markman
authors: Amanda M
authors: AM
authors: Amacker
authors: Tasha A
authors: TA
authors: Menaker
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001290:Attitude; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000523:psychology*; D012938:Social Perception; D013334:Students; D014481:United States; D014495:Universities; D014754:Violence / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult