Are College Students’ Judgments of Sanctions for Sexual Assault Cases on Campus Moderated by Attitudes and Traits?

• In Event: Perceptions and Portrayals of Sexual Assault, its Victims, and Just Responses

Abstract

In recent years, many universities have removed students from hearing panels for adjudication of sexual misconduct cases, motivated by concerns that cases with potentially severe consequences might not be judged objectively by students or might incur too serious a responsibility for their participation. Our research investigates whether students’ judgments of sexual misconduct cases and their application of sanctions are moderated by the following attitudes/traits: authoritarianism; sexism; social desirability; belief in a just world; and rape myth acceptance.

Authors

• Jaspreet Chahal, University of Kentucky

• Caihong Li, University of Kentucky

• Diane Follingstad, University of Kentucky

• Claire Renzetti, University of Kentucky