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Judging the unseen: The impact of onset controllability in shaping perceptions of defendants with traumatic brain injury

Claire Williams Orcid Logo, Inesa Ledovskyte Orcid Logo

PLOS One, Volume: 20, Issue: 12, Start page: e0323637

Swansea University Author: Claire Williams Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1371/journal.pone.0323637

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been associated with increased risk of criminality, yet very little is known about how individuals with TBI may intersect with the adjudication phase of the criminal justice system. Therefore, the aim of this study was to conduct the first empirical investigation of...

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Published in: PLOS One
ISSN: 1932-6203
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71134
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spelling 2025-12-11T16:08:13.8954448 v2 71134 2025-12-11 Judging the unseen: The impact of onset controllability in shaping perceptions of defendants with traumatic brain injury 21dc2ebf100cf324becc27e8db6fde8d 0000-0002-0791-744X Claire Williams Claire Williams true false 2025-12-11 PSYS Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been associated with increased risk of criminality, yet very little is known about how individuals with TBI may intersect with the adjudication phase of the criminal justice system. Therefore, the aim of this study was to conduct the first empirical investigation of how individuals with TBI are perceived within the context of a UK magistrates’ court, and how the perceived controllability of the onset of injury may influence perceptions and sentencing-related recommendations. 174 participants (60.35% female, mean age = 34.86 years) from a general population sample, reflecting diverse employment and education backgrounds, read a fictional transcript of a magistrate sentencing a defendant for an assault charge. Participants were randomly allocated to a single condition (Onset Controllable, Onset Uncontrollable, or no-TBI control), where the onset controllability of the injury was experimentally manipulated. Participants were asked to make sentence related recommendations and to rate the defendant’s level of risk and dangerousness, behavioural tendencies, and the extent to which they felt empathy/sympathy towards them. Additionally, their proximity to, knowledge of, and attitudes towards brain injury were assessed. The perceived onset controllability of the TBI was not found to influence perceptions and sentencing-related recommendations. Instead, participants reported feeling more empathetic towards the defendant and rated their behavioural tendencies more favourably if they were described as having sustained a TBI, irrespective of its onset controllability. This suggests that the presence of TBI might evoke strong empathic responses that counteract the tendency to assign blame based on controllability and may also lead to more favourable behavioural perceptions, but that such evaluations are not strong enough to exert an influence on sentencing related recommendations. Consequently, it is possible that the invisible nature of TBI-related disability, coupled with poor public understanding, may mean that information about a defendant’s brain injury is overlooked and/or not taken into full account in sentencing related recommendations. Journal Article PLOS One 20 12 e0323637 Public Library of Science (PLoS) 1932-6203 8 12 2025 2025-12-08 10.1371/journal.pone.0323637 COLLEGE NANME Psychology School COLLEGE CODE PSYS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) Swansea University 2025-12-11T16:08:13.8954448 2025-12-11T16:02:14.2978503 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences School of Psychology Claire Williams 0000-0002-0791-744X 1 Inesa Ledovskyte 0009-0003-6466-1916 2 71134__35802__5e451d83ee2a4bd1958c5d3a2f8b4608.pdf 71134.VOR.pdf 2025-12-11T16:05:26.5744407 Output 700070 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2025 Williams, Ledovskyte. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Judging the unseen: The impact of onset controllability in shaping perceptions of defendants with traumatic brain injury
spellingShingle Judging the unseen: The impact of onset controllability in shaping perceptions of defendants with traumatic brain injury
Claire Williams
title_short Judging the unseen: The impact of onset controllability in shaping perceptions of defendants with traumatic brain injury
title_full Judging the unseen: The impact of onset controllability in shaping perceptions of defendants with traumatic brain injury
title_fullStr Judging the unseen: The impact of onset controllability in shaping perceptions of defendants with traumatic brain injury
title_full_unstemmed Judging the unseen: The impact of onset controllability in shaping perceptions of defendants with traumatic brain injury
title_sort Judging the unseen: The impact of onset controllability in shaping perceptions of defendants with traumatic brain injury
author_id_str_mv 21dc2ebf100cf324becc27e8db6fde8d
author_id_fullname_str_mv 21dc2ebf100cf324becc27e8db6fde8d_***_Claire Williams
author Claire Williams
author2 Claire Williams
Inesa Ledovskyte
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publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
issn 1932-6203
doi_str_mv 10.1371/journal.pone.0323637
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
college_str Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
department_str School of Psychology{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Psychology
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description Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been associated with increased risk of criminality, yet very little is known about how individuals with TBI may intersect with the adjudication phase of the criminal justice system. Therefore, the aim of this study was to conduct the first empirical investigation of how individuals with TBI are perceived within the context of a UK magistrates’ court, and how the perceived controllability of the onset of injury may influence perceptions and sentencing-related recommendations. 174 participants (60.35% female, mean age = 34.86 years) from a general population sample, reflecting diverse employment and education backgrounds, read a fictional transcript of a magistrate sentencing a defendant for an assault charge. Participants were randomly allocated to a single condition (Onset Controllable, Onset Uncontrollable, or no-TBI control), where the onset controllability of the injury was experimentally manipulated. Participants were asked to make sentence related recommendations and to rate the defendant’s level of risk and dangerousness, behavioural tendencies, and the extent to which they felt empathy/sympathy towards them. Additionally, their proximity to, knowledge of, and attitudes towards brain injury were assessed. The perceived onset controllability of the TBI was not found to influence perceptions and sentencing-related recommendations. Instead, participants reported feeling more empathetic towards the defendant and rated their behavioural tendencies more favourably if they were described as having sustained a TBI, irrespective of its onset controllability. This suggests that the presence of TBI might evoke strong empathic responses that counteract the tendency to assign blame based on controllability and may also lead to more favourable behavioural perceptions, but that such evaluations are not strong enough to exert an influence on sentencing related recommendations. Consequently, it is possible that the invisible nature of TBI-related disability, coupled with poor public understanding, may mean that information about a defendant’s brain injury is overlooked and/or not taken into full account in sentencing related recommendations.
published_date 2025-12-08T05:31:11Z
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