Cover; Prelims; Contents; Introduction; Part I The Background; 1 The Justice Gap in Sexual Assault Cases; 1.1 The problem of attrition; 1.2 The legal background; 1.3 Summary and conclusions; 2 Stereotypes, Myths and Heuristics in the Perception of Sexual Assault; 2.1 The 'real rape' stereotype; 2.2 Rape myths and negative attitudes about rape victims; 2.3 Rape stereotypes and police responses to rape complaints; 2.4 The attribution of blame to victims of rape; 2.5 Heuristics in the process of decision-making about sexual assault; 2.6 Summary and conclusions
3 The Problem of the Jury in Sexual Assault Trials3.1 The methodology of jury studies; 3.2 Dealing with the evidence; 3.3 The role of expert testimony; 3.4 The judges summing up and non-verbal cues; 3.5 Reaching a verdict; Part II New Evidence; 4 A Question of Attitude: Prospective Lawyers; 4.1 Study 1: undergraduate law students and the real rape stereotype; 4.2 Study 2: schematic processing by vocational law students; 5 A Question of Attitude: The Gene
Summary
This book is set against the background of the 'justice gap' in sexual assault cases - the dramatic gap between the number of offences recorded by the police and the number of convictions. It seeks to examine the attitudinal problems which bedevil this area of law and possible strategies for addressing them. Written by a professor of law and a professor of psychology, it reviews evidence from socio-legal and social cognition research and presents new data drawn both from interviews with judges and barristers and from studies with prospective lawyers and members of the public. In the final part
