Influence of Sexual Assault Victim and Perpetrator Characteristics on Sentencing Outcome: A Preliminary Study

Abstract Objective: The psychological trauma resulting from sexual assault can affect the victim’s mental and emotional well-being, with the most severe cases potentially leading to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In this study, we intended to study the influence of PTSD on sentencing the outcomes for perpetrators in sexual assault cases. Methods: We included 22 judgments from the Kaohsiung District Court and the Ciaotou District Court in this study. The analysis included data collection on various perpetrators’ characteristics, including gender, age, and their relationship with the victim. We gathered and analyzed the information on the type of coercion, crime patterns, damages sustained, judge-related details and sentencing severity, as well as the perpetrators’ data on psychiatric history, substance use, and forensic evaluation reports, and PTSD diagnoses. Results: We found that PTSD, substance use, and the number of assaults did not significantly predict sentencing severity. Conclusion: In this preliminary study, PTSD, the number of assaults, and substance use were not significantly predicting sentencing severity in the crime of sexual assaults. Further research on this topic is needed.