Crimes Passionnels: Gender Differences in Perceived Justification for Murder in the Face of Marital Infidelity

Abstract

A total of 240 subjects (120 men and 120 women) participated in a study designed to assess reactions to a scenario which depicted events typical of a crime passionnel. There were 8 different vignettes in all, in which the identity of aggressor (husband/wife), the identity of victim (spouse/perceived rival) and existence of children in the family (two/none) were varied. Subjects were required to indicate how justified they thought the behaviour of the aggressor to be, to decide on a suitable length of term in prison and to specify, given a choice of alternatives, the type of punishment they thought most appropriate. Demographic details relating to each subject's age, marital status (and number of children), level of educational attainment and degree of religiosity were also recorded. It was fQund that the length of the assigned prison sentence Was related to the identity of the aggressor, with husbands being treated more punitively than wives irrespective of whether their victim was a rival or their spouse. It was also found that female subjects were generally more punitive than males in assigning prison sentences, and that married respondents and those with families considered the act of killing in the face of infidelity to be more justified than their single or childless counterparts. The findings are discussed in relation to both sociobiological theory and in terms of the way in which they relate to the outcomes of some recent court cases involving crimes of this nature.