Good or Essential? The Effects of Victim Characteristics and Family Significance on Sentencing Judgments and Perceptions of Harm. Issue 5 (2nd September 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mitchell, Katherine; Myers, Bryan; Broszkiewicz, Nastassia
• Is Part Of: Psychiatry, psychology, and law. Volume 23:Issue 5(2016)
• Page Start: 651
• Page End: 669
• Publication Date: 2016-09-02
• Subjects: character -- crime victims -- harm -- jurors -- sentencing -- victim impact statements; Criminal psychology -- Periodicals; Forensic psychiatry -- Periodicals; Mentally ill offenders -- Periodicals; 345.9404
• DOI: 10.1080/13218719.2015.1084662
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1321-8719

Abstract

ABSTRACT : Victim impact statements containing information about the character of the victim, as well as their significance to the family were varied across conditions to examine their effects on perceptions of harm and sentencing decisions for 166 death qualified participants. The results indicate that information concerning the victim's significance to their family significantly influenced sentencing judgments, whereas victim character information failed to do so. Perceptions of harm significantly mediated the relation between family significance and sentencing decisions. Implications for the Supreme Court ruling in Payne v. Tennessee (1991) and the relevance of including information about the victim as a means of communicating harm in capital trial sentencing are discussed.