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Mitigating Circumstances (mitigating + circumstance)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Psychology83%

Selected Abstracts

Reactions to a Motor-Vehicle Accident in Relation to Mitigating Circumstances and the Gender and Moral Worth of the Driver,

JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2000
NORMAN T. FEATHER
Male and female students (N= 153) at the Flinders University of South Australia read scenarios describing a motor-vehicle accident that varied mitigating circumstances (driving on a slippery road vs. driving at high speed), gender of driver, and the moral worth of the driver (very dependable and trustworthy vs. not dependable and a bit untrustworthy). Results showed that mitigation affected judgments about the driver's responsibility, seriousness of the offense, driver's deservingness of penalty imposed, harshness of penalty, positive affect about the penalty, and sympathy for the driver, consistent with a social cognitive process model (Feather, 1996c, 1998). Moral worth affected judgments about the driver's moral character, harshness of penalty, and liking and sympathy for the driver. Participants attributed higher moral character to the female driver and also reported more liking for the female driver. There was some limited evidence for an in-group gender bias. [source]

Effects of Perceived Emotional Intensity on Mock Jurors' Murder/Manslaughter Distinctions

JOURNAL OF APPLIED BIOBEHAVIORAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2002
Matthew P. Spackman
Anglo-American law instructs jurors that defendants' emotions might constitute mitigating circumstances in murder/manslaughter cases. The present study examined which aspects of defendants' emotions mock jurors take into consideration when determining their murder/manslaughter verdicts. Four factors found to be predictive of perceptions of emotional intensity in previous research were shown to be predictive of murder/manslaughter convictions. These factors included whether the defendant had a history of violence with the victim, the particular emotion experienced, whether the defendant dwelt upon the feelings associated with his or her emotion, and whether the defendant intended the actions associated with his or her emotion. These findings are compared with two approaches that the law has taken to evaluate defendants' emotions: objective standards and subjective standards. Ramifications of these findings for jury instructions as well as for the law's conception of emotion are discussed. [source]

Reactions to a Motor-Vehicle Accident in Relation to Mitigating Circumstances and the Gender and Moral Worth of the Driver,

JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2000
NORMAN T. FEATHER
Male and female students (N= 153) at the Flinders University of South Australia read scenarios describing a motor-vehicle accident that varied mitigating circumstances (driving on a slippery road vs. driving at high speed), gender of driver, and the moral worth of the driver (very dependable and trustworthy vs. not dependable and a bit untrustworthy). Results showed that mitigation affected judgments about the driver's responsibility, seriousness of the offense, driver's deservingness of penalty imposed, harshness of penalty, positive affect about the penalty, and sympathy for the driver, consistent with a social cognitive process model (Feather, 1996c, 1998). Moral worth affected judgments about the driver's moral character, harshness of penalty, and liking and sympathy for the driver. Participants attributed higher moral character to the female driver and also reported more liking for the female driver. There was some limited evidence for an in-group gender bias. [source]

The Fate of Former East German Police in Reunified Germany, 1990,1996: The Dialectics of Inclusion and Exclusion

JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2 2010
KATY A. CROSSLEY-FROLICK
This article analyzes the vetting of former East German police in Berlin and Brandenburg in the context of the former East Germany's transition to democracy and German unification. Police are one of the most critical and sensitive sectors of the civil service and typically, along with teachers, among the first groups to be vetted in the context of democratic transitions. The German case illustrates the often unpredictable and inconsistent approaches to vetting that led to very different outcomes throughout the East. It identifies several factors that influenced vetting and employment prospects for former East German police officers. These included political geography, who did the vetting, how a candidate's past was interpreted (whether aggravating or mitigating circumstances were weighed), the institutional arrangements for vetting, state-mandated guidelines or criteria for determining suitability, and timing. [source]

The impact of death qualification, belief in a just world, legal authoritarianism, and locus of control on venirepersons' evaluations of aggravating and mitigating circumstances in capital trials,

BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES & THE LAW, Issue 1 2007
Brooke Butler Ph.D.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of death qualification, belief in a just world (BJW), legal authoritarianism (RLAQ), and locus of control (LOC) on venirepersons' evaluations of aggravating and mitigating circumstances in capital trials. 212 venirepersons from the 12th Judicial Circuit in Bradenton, FL, completed a booklet that contained the following: one question that measured their attitudes toward the death penalty; one question that categorized their death-qualification status; the BJW, LOC, and RLAQ scales; a summary of the guilt and penalty phases of a capital case; a 26-item measure that required participants to evaluate aggravators, nonstatutory mitigators, and statutory mitigators on a 6-point Likert scale; sentence preference; and standard demographic questions. Results indicated that death-qualified venirepersons were more likely to demonstrate higher endorsements of aggravating factors and lower endorsements of both nonstatutory and statutory mitigating factors. Death-qualified participants were also more likely to have a high belief in a just world, espouse legal authoritarian beliefs, and exhibit an internal locus of control. Findings also suggested that venirepersons with a low belief in a just world and an external locus of control demonstrated higher endorsements of statutory mitigators. Participants with legal authoritarian beliefs revealed higher endorsements of aggravators and lower endorsements of nonstatutory mitigators. Legal implications and applications are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]