TY - JOUR PY - 1996// TI - Trials of battered women who kill: The impact of alternative forms of expert evidence JO - Law and human behavior A1 - Schuller, Regina A. A1 - Hastings, Patricia A. SP - 167 EP - 187 VL - 20 IS - 2 N2 - Examined the impact of a defendant's prior response history (passive vs active) and the presence and form of expert testimony on jurors' verdicts of homicide trials involving battered women who kill their abusers. 397 Ss (195 students and 202 nonstudents) were presented with versions of a case in which both the degree of passivity and the type of testimony (battered woman syndrome, social agency, or no expert control) were manipulated. Overall, Ss rendered more lenient verdicts and provided more favorable evaluations of the defendant's claim of self-defense in the presence of expert testimony (either form). These effects were more pronounced for the student than the nonstudent sample. No differences between the 2 forms of testimony or the defendant's prior responses were evidenced for verdicts or juror judgments, indicating that the theorized "pathologizing" aspects of battered woman syndrome evidence did not affect the decision process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

LA - SN - 0147-7307 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01499353 ID - ref1 ER -