JUDGMENTS OF CONSENT IN SIMULATED RAPE CASES

Introductory psychology students read summary ''police reports'' to ju dge whether an alleged victim consented to sex with a suspect The fact ors manipulated were the effects of injury and amount of time between the incident and the filing of a report. A functional measurement anal ysis was used to determine the cognitive algebra underlying the judgme nts. An additive model was supported by the data. Subjects were more l ikely to consider the sex consensual if the victim was uninjured and w aited three days to report the incident to police. Male subjects assig ned higher consent ratings than females for all stimulus combinations.