Juror bias and mental illness: the double stigma of paraphilic disorders in sex crime cases.

Perpetrators of sex crimes who meet criteria for paraphilic disorders often face heightened stigma. Although paraphilic disorders are classified as mental illnesses, they are not typically viewed as mitigating in legal contexts, unlike other diagnoses such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This study used a mediation model to examine whether a diagnosis of frotteuristic disorder influenced mock jurors' sentencing decisions through perceptions of defendant controllability. Among 259 participants, results showed that the defendant with a paraphilic disorder received harsher punishment than those in the no diagnosis and OCD conditions, despite being perceived as having less control than the no diagnosis condition. These findings suggest that, rather than serving as a mitigating factor, a paraphilic disorder may act as an aggravating one in juror decision-making. Implications for legal proceedings involving mental illness and sex crimes are discussed.