Interpersonal Violence & VICTIM BLAMING

Although significantly underreported, victims of interpersonal violence (i.e., sexual assault, intimate partner violence, stalking) are often subject to stigma and victim blaming through various stages in the criminal justice system. Another area that the PERPLab studies is extralegal factors that influence or bias our judgments about victims of interpersonal violence within forensic settings. We also evaluate judgments about the characteristics of perpetrators of interpersonal violence and characteristics of these crimes that influence perceptions of severity and necessity for criminal justice interventions.

how we study interpersonal violence in our lab

Within the PERPLab, we define interpersonal violence broadly as referring to crimes that occur within a real or implied relational context and that have distinct 'victims' and 'perpetrators'. For our purposes, we focus primarily on sexual assault, intimate partner violence, and stalking, but have also conducted research regarding judgments made in cases of homicide.

We study this topic in several ways:

(1) Evaluating how extralegal factors (e.g., gender and sexual minority (GSM) identity, race, age, levels of emotion, stereotypes) influence courtroom biases

(2) Examining decisions made by legal personnel (i.e., prospective jurors, policing recruits) regarding victim and perpetrator credibility

(3) Studies that survey experiences of interpersonal violence in our sample and factors that impacted their experiences

(4) Collaborative community project examining offence and treatment characteristics within IPV offenders

FEATURE STUDIES

Reach out to us for more information on any of these areas of research!

SEXUAL ASSAULT

Gender & Sexual Minorities (GSM)

Victim blaming in gender minorities
Stereotypes and sexual minority victims
Lived experience of sexual assault in GSM

Racial Status & Age Factors

Indigenous status of victim & perpetrator
Victim age and race interactions
Racial status and NCR judgments

Levels of Intoxication

Levels of intoxication and consent
Victim and perpetrator intoxication levels
Rape myth associations with intoxication

Emotional Displays

Victim and perpetrator emotion in court
Testimony & victim impact statements
Displayed emotion & gender minorities

Sexual Coercion

Psychopathic traits and sexual coercion
Type and intensity of sexual coercion
Sexual coercive experiences & interpretation in sexual minorities

False Allegations

Characteristics & consistency of genuine and false allegations of sexual trauma
Symptoms of sexual violence associated with false v genuine claims
Motivations for false allegations

Sexual Consent Education

Impact of education about sexual consent
Knowledge and application of sexual consent training
Awareness of consent elements
Increasing campaign effectiveness

INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE

Gender & Sexual Minorities (GSM)

Victim and perpetrator culpability judgments in IPV cases
IPV in sexual & gender minority groups
Severity & crime perceptions across GSM

Gender Stereotypes

Perceptions of IPV victims, perpetrators, crimes, and criminal justice variables in relation to traditional sex role stereotypes, ambivalent & hostile sexism, and belief in a just world

Abuse Type & Age of Couple

Evaluation of victim, perpetrator & crime perceptions across physical, sexual, emotional & financial abuse
Credibility as a function of age of couple

Memory Beliefs & IPV Allegations

Repeated or single incident traumas
Beliefs about traumatic memory validity
Perceptions of allegations across policing recruits versus laypersons

STALKING (CRIMINAL HARASSMENT)

Perceptions of Stalking Scenarios

Comparisons of in-person, phone, or cyberstalking
Stalker-victim relationships including former partners, acquaintances, or strangers
Stalker gender & interpretations of crime & culpability

Stalking Myths & Perceptions

Evaluations of stalking behaviours, perpetrators, and victims in relation to stalking myths and lived experience
Stalking Related Attitudes Questionnaire (SRAQ), Perceptions of Stalking Scale (PSS), Obsessive Relational Intrusive Scale (ORIS)

Threat & Stalking Perception

Threats associated with stalking episodes
Stalker threats of victim harm versus threats of self-harm
Likelihood of follow through and effects on crime perceptions

Identification of Stalking Behaviour

When is 'stalking' defined as such
Variations as a function of form of stalking (online, offline, both), frequency of the stalking behaviour, and intensity
Stalking progression and identification

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

Future research directions include focusing on investigating factors associated with victim blaming across various types of interpersonal violence, as well as the interplay between attitudinal factors and minority group status (race/GSM) on crime, victim, perpetrator and criminal justice perceptions.