Third, it seems that cases involving sex-related victimization are more likely to result in a death sentence. This finding is understandable because rape is allowable as an aggravating factor in death-eligible cases. However, in the current study, it is not rape victimization that best explains the victim gender effect. Indeed, even after controlling for rape, victim gender remains significantly predictive of receiving a death sentence. Rather, it is the forced nudity of the victim that fully explains the harsher sentences received by defendants who kill females vis-` a-vis males. This finding suggests that prosecutors or jurors may view the sexual degradation or humiliation of the victim, and not just forced sex, as particularly heinous and deserving of the death penalty. In the next section of the analysis, we explore this issue by examining the impact of victim gender at two different stages in the death penalty case process.13