Date: Friday 13th March 2020
Time: 12-1pm
Room: CG04, College Building
Dr Sam Lundrigan (Anglia Ruskin University)
Abstract
In
the courtroom, the likelihood of conviction should rest solely on a jury’s
consideration of the facts of the case. However, past research has found that
jurors are often influenced by extra-legal factors such as characteristics
associated with the victim, witness, or defendant. Also, since rape trials
involving strangers are relatively rare, public knowledge of these cases is
shaped largely by media portrayals of a small number of cases, often marked by
lengthy, challenging, and sensational trials. This may result in misconceptions
about stranger rape that jurors bring to the courtroom. Currently, there is
very little research regarding stranger rape against either adults or children
and the features of this particular type of rape that may influence jury
verdicts.
In this seminar I will discuss the
findings of two studies, conducted with colleagues from Middlesex University
and the London Metropolitan Police Service, that explore the factors that predict juries’ decisions to convict or acquit in
stranger rape cases. For both studies, data
(spanning a
15-year period) was extracted from a sexual offence database maintained by
the London Metropolitan Police Service. In Study 1, we analysed 394 stranger cases involving
adult female victims and in Study 2, we examined 70 stranger cases involving
child victims. In both studies, our analysis revealed that jury verdicts were
predicted predominantly by certain offence-related factors. I will discuss the
implications of the findings of these studies for both prosecution case building and courtroom policy.
~ This talk is aimed at anyone interested in psychology, particularly forensic psychology.
Students are encouraged to attend.
Attendance would benefit both undergraduate and postgraduate students from psychology and related fields ~
Biography
Dr Lundrigan is interested in the interface between psychology
and crime, and how psychology may be applied to the understanding and
investigation of stranger sexual crime.
She
joined Anglia Ruskin in January 2009 where she is now the Director of PIER, the
Policing Institute for the Eastern Region. Prior to this she was at the
Institute of Criminology at Cambridge University and before that spent seven
years at the Institute of Criminology at Victoria University of Wellington
in New Zealand.
As
well as teaching, Dr Lundrigan has also conducted a range of research projects
into geographic profiling systems, the spatial behaviour of serial rapists and
the behavioural consistency of serial offenders. She has worked closely with
police and provided offender and geographic profiles on a series of serious
crime investigations. Her research interests include: offender profiling,
male sexual violation, stranger interpersonal violence, juror decision making,
rape, online child sexual abuse, the management of registered sex offenders.
