Women caught killing their cheating lovers receive lighter sentences than men in the same situation.
A study of love-triangle homicides by psychologists Laurie Ragatz of West Virginia University and Brenda Russell of Penn State Berks compared reactions.
Ragatz and Russell presented study participants with a scenario based on an actual Texas trial in 2001. In that case the male defendant walked into his lover’s home after being thrown out the day before. He shot and killed her, then shot and wounded her new lover, who subsequently called police.
For one-quarter of the participants, the gender of the characters in the story were unchanged from the real-life case. For another quarter, they were reversed, so the defendant was female and the victim male. For another quarter, both were females, and for the final quarter, both were males.
The findings from the study suggest heterosexual female defendants are more likely to benefit from using the provocation doctrine in a crime-of-passion case.
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