This Feels Criminal: A True Crime Podcast (Formerly Killer Queens)

The Murder of Calum Simpson: Do We Really Treat Male and Female Victims Differently? - Part 2

August 13, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

Calum Simpson was 18 years old when he was murdered by two men he met through a friend. The prosecution told the court there was no evidence he had "any homosexual tendencies." The defense had spent the trial trying to suggest that because Simpson had spent the day with men who were arranging a sexual encounter through Grindr, he must have been a willing participant in what happened to him. The Crown's counterargument was not that consent requires more than orientation—it was that Simpson was straight, so he could not have consented. The hosts of This Feels Criminal had started this two-part episode expecting to find clear evidence that the justice system hands out lighter sentences when the victim is a woman. What they found instead was something more complicated: gender bias does not show up where most people assume it does.

Where Bias Actually Lives

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **Ad Block: Grow Therapy & Progressive Insurance** - Promotional segment for therapy service and car insurance.
2 (01:52) **Re-framing the Question** - The hosts reveal that Part 1's assumption about sentencing bias was incomplete, and the real issue is about who is seen as a victim in the first place.
3 (03:36) **Documented Rape Myths for Female Victims** - The hosts list the specific, research-backed questions and assumptions that female victims face, which reduce their credibility and increase blame.
4 (09:42) **Documented Rape Myths for Male Victims** - The hosts list the specific, research-backed assumptions that male victims face, which prevent them from reporting or being believed.
5 (12:43) **The 2025 Systematic Review: Male vs. Female Credibility** - The hosts detail a key study that shows male victims are rated as less credible and more blameworthy in identical scenarios, but are sometimes convicted at higher rates.
6 (18:20) **Gender Bias at Different Stages of the System** - The hosts synthesize the research, concluding gender bias cuts against men at the reporting and investigation stage, but may cut in their favor during trial.
7 (19:06) **The Callum Simpson Case: Sexuality as a Stand-in for Consent** - The hosts analyze how Calum Simpson's potential sexual orientation was weaponized by both the defense and the prosecution.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

After researching dozens of studies, court decisions, and primary sources, we discovered the answer wasn't nearly as simple as we expected.

Do men receive more justice than women?

Are women taken less seriously?

Or are different myths shaping how we perceive different victims?

In Part 2, we examine what the research actually says about victim credibility, gender stereotypes, reporting, prosecution, and sentencing—and why the evidence challenged some of our own assumptions.

Because the biggest surprise wasn't whether gender matters.

It was how it matters.

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