ABSTRACT The present study utilized a 2 (Victim physical maturity VPM: prepubescent vs. postpubescent) × 3 (victim‐defendant age congruency: congruent 12 vs. 12, small incongruency 12 vs. 16, and large incongruency 12 vs. 30) between‐subjects design with jury‐eligible community members ( N = 502) to test the prediction that mock jurors would differentially perceive victims/defendants based on VPM and defendant age, which would in turn influence verdict decisions. Moreover, we predicted that the prepubescent victim and adult defendant condition would predict increased perceptions of victim credibility, defendant culpability/dangerousness, and in turn, guilty verdicts, compared to the postpubescent victim and juvenile defendant conditions. These predictions were partially supported. However, VPM did not predict verdict. These findings have negative implications regarding the perceived credibility of CSA victims abused by older or same‐aged children.
Aliev et al. (Sun,) studied this question.