The present study examined the presence of a jailhouse informant (JI) on mock jurors’ perceptions of a sexual assault trial. In two experiments, male and female, jury-eligible community members (recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk) read (via Qualtrics) a fictional trial summary in which a defendant sexually assaulted a 6-year-old child or 25-year-old. The prosecution’s case included a JI who testified that the defendant told him about committing the assault or the case excluded JI testimony. It was predicted that the presence of JI testimony, younger victims, and female participants would lead to more pro-victim judgments (e.g., more guilty verdicts). In addition, it was predicted that victim credibility would mediate the relationship between JI testimony and pro-victim judgments. Experiment 1 (N = 278, 57.5% female, 42.5% male) presented a trial with a female victim, whereas experiment 2 (N = 158, 53% female and 47% male) presented a trial with a male victim. Primary results found that participants were more pro-victim when there was a JI versus no JI, and that there was significant mediation via victim credibility. Implications and potential dangers of presenting JI testimony in sexual assault cases are discussed.

本研究调查了监狱线人 (JI) 的存在对模拟陪审员对性侵犯审判的看法的影响。在两个实验中，符合陪审团资格的男性和女性社区成员（从亚马逊的 Mechanical Turk 招募）阅读（通过 Qualtrics）一份虚构的审判摘要，其中一名被告性侵犯了一名 6 岁儿童或 25 岁儿童。控方的案子包括一名伊斯兰教联合会作证说被告告诉他实施袭击或案件排除了伊斯兰教联合会的证词。据预测，JI 证词、年轻受害者和女性参与者的存在将导致更多有利于受害者的判断（例如，更多的有罪判决）。此外，据预测，受害人的可信度将调解 JI 证词与支持受害人的判断之间的关系。实验一（N = 278，57.5% 女性，42.5% 男性）对女性受害者进行了试验，而实验 2（N  = 158，53% 女性和 47% 男性）对男性受害者进行了试验。初步结果发现，与没有 JI 相比，有 JI 时参与者更支持受害者，并且通过受害人的可信度进行显着调解。讨论了在性侵犯案件中出示 JI 证词的影响和潜在危险。