Gender and the Experience of Mental Health Expert Witness Testimony

Mental health expert witness testimony involves complex tasks, and the capacity to perform under pressure is a fundamental skill of a forensic professional. In this context, it is important to understand the nuances of the provision of expert witness testimony. There have been several efforts to examine gender bias across legal and medical systems. Despite these reviews, little is known about how men and women differ or are similar with regard to performing expert witness functions. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine whether the testimony experiences of psychiatry and psychology experts vary by gender. Differences across certain domains, such as the sense of never experiencing anxiety and the sense of one's impact on case outcome were seen across genders. Few other gender-based differences in the experience of providing expert witness testimony were seen. Although the findings of this study raise further questions, they highlight some of the important subtleties noted in forensic practice and the work of the expert witness. In future studies, researchers should continue to explore these findings on the influence of gender and expand to consider culture and race as additional factors in the experience of expert witness testimony. As forensic professional practice evolves, it is important to understand unique aspects of forensic practice, to improve training of forensic experts, and to assist forensic experts in anticipating what they may experience related to the provision of expert testimony.