MYTHS and negative stereotypes about female victims persist even when jurors in sex crimes trials end up finding the accused guilty, according to a study that lifts the veil on the jury room.

The behind-the-scenes insight into jurors' views on the conduct of sex trials was made possible when the Tasmanian attorney-general permitted some jurors in the state to discuss their secret deliberations with researchers.

''It shows that jurors are still influenced by stereotypes, even if they convict,'' said legal researcher Professor Kate Warner, who will present findings today at the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology conference in Geelong.

''They have in their mind an idea of a 'real rapist' and have difficulty accepting that is what an offender is.''

During the course of one-on-one interviews with a selection of jurors, a 53-year-old woman who voted to acquit a man of multiple aggravated sex assault charges against his partner, remarked: ''This is a domestic that's gone terribly wrong. Why is it in the Supreme Court?''