The present study investigated the effects of child and expert witness testimony on mock jurors’ decision-making and perceptions of a case in which a female defendant claimed self-defense as the reason for killing her husband during a domestic dispute. A 3 (expert witness: Battered Woman Syndrome [BWS] vs. Social Agency [SA] vs. No Expert) × 3 (child witness: Age 5 vs. Age 8 vs. no child) between-subject design was used to examine the effects of two different forms of expert testimony and their interaction with the presence of a child witness. Jury-eligible participants ( N = 370) were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and a Psychology Undergraduate Student Pool. The mock jurors who were exposed to the BWS expert perceived the defendant as more guilty when an 8-year-old testified compared to when no child testified at all. Furthermore, when the jurors were exposed to the BWS expert, they imposed a harsher sentence on the defendant when an 8-year-old child testified compared to a 5-year-old child or no child testifying. Although the jurors perceived the defendant in the BWS condition as more fearful compared to no expert and the SA condition, this knowledge did not seem to translate into a lighter verdict or sentencing decision. This study aims to provide guidelines for future researchers and legal professionals considering the issue of expert testimony and child witnesses in intimate partner homicides.

中文翻译：

---

当受虐受害者杀死施虐者时：儿童证词和专家证词对模拟陪审员决策的影响


本研究调查了儿童和专家证人的证词对模拟陪审员的决策和对案件的看法的影响，在该案件中，一名女性被告声称自卫是家庭纠纷中杀死丈夫的原因。A 3（专家证人：受虐妇女综合症 [BWS] vs. 社会机构 [SA] vs. 无专家）× 3（儿童证人：5 岁 vs. 8 岁 vs. 无儿童）用于检查两种不同形式的专家证词的效果以及它们与儿童证人在场的相互作用。符合陪审团资格的参与者 （N = 370） 是从 Amazon Mechanical Turk 和心理学本科生库中招募的。接触 BWS 专家的模拟陪审员认为，与根本没有孩子作证相比，当一名 8 岁儿童作证时，被告的罪责更高。此外，当陪审员接触到 BWS 专家时，当一名 8 岁儿童作证时，他们对被告的判决比一名 5 岁儿童或没有儿童作证时更严厉。尽管陪审员认为与没有专家和 SA 条件相比，处于 BWS 条件下的被告更加恐惧，但这些知识似乎并没有转化为较轻的判决或量刑决定。本研究旨在为未来的研究人员和法律专业人士提供指导，以考虑亲密伴侣杀人案中的专家证词和儿童证人问题。