Are unattractive people more likely to commit crimes?
Relevant: The Ugly Face of Crime:
http://www.metafilter.com/49356/The-Ugly-Face-of-Crime
Jurors more likely to convict unattractive people
11–20 of 41 posts
Re: Jurors more likely to convict unattractive people
#12Are unattractive people more likely to commit crimes?
[reply edited to something more appropriate] That's an interesting question. If they do, it would be interesting to see if people were good at discerning which types of unattractiveness correlate to higher crime-rates. Or said differently, do we instinctively pick up on something meaningful in personal appearance that correlates to unacceptable social behaviors.
I didn't intend this to be rude. I was trying to point out that, for raw numbers, of course unattractive people are going to commit more crimes. There are more of them (by definition).
Re: Jurors more likely to convict unattractive people
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
[reply edited to something more appropriate] That's an interesting question. If they do, it would be interesting to see if people were good at discerning which types of unattractiveness correlate to higher crime-rates. Or said differently, do we instinctively pick up on something meaningful in personal appearance that correlates to unacceptable social behaviors.
I didn't intend this to be rude. I was trying to point out that, for raw numbers, of course unattractive people are going to commit more crimes. There are more of them (by definition).
If someone asks if Blacks are more likely to die of heart attack, they don't care that there are more whites in the country and therefore they have more heart attacks.
Re: Jurors more likely to convict unattractive people
#14Are unattractive people more likely to commit crimes?
Irrelevant. The relevant question is, are unattractive people on trial more likely to be guilty?
Re: Jurors more likely to convict unattractive people
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't intend this to be rude. I was trying to point out that, for raw numbers, of course unattractive people are going to commit more crimes. There are more of them (by definition).
If someone asks if Blacks are more likely to die of heart attack, they don't care that there are more whites in the country and therefore they have more heart attacks.
You're right. My mistake.
Re: Jurors more likely to convict unattractive people
#16Jurors go through a lot in performing what is a pretty thankless task, and I would imagine that courts and legislatures will think long and hard before adopting any system by which they add the further burden of making jurors undergo psychological tests as a condition of being chosen. Such a system, if used on a jury pool in any systematic way, would prove incredibly burdensome because, as anyone who has served knows…
I think the idea of the psych tests was that they might be used as a tool for the prosecution and defense to exclude members from the jury pool. Today, potential jurors can be asked to fill out surveys with questions like, "Have you ever been the victim of a violent crime?" So, asking "Do you make decisions based on your emotions?" isn't too big of a step.
In the US judicial system, N potential jurors are made available to the prosecution and defense, and each side takes a turn excluding a person until the number of jurors required is reached. I think the idea is that those on the ends of the normal distribution (in terms of biases relevant to the trial at hand) will be removed so that the jury is more fair than if N jurors were selected at random.
Re: Jurors more likely to convict unattractive people
#17Jurors are also more likely to convict men than women. And give them harsher sentences for the same crimes.
Re: Jurors more likely to convict unattractive people
#18Are unattractive people more likely to commit crimes?
Separating offense from conviction reliably is impossible, so we'll never know for sure. One thing you can do though is measure more quantifiable predictors of criminality, such as IQ, and compare estimates based on attractiveness to actual performance. In most such cases the answer is that ugly people are dumber than average and pretty people are smarter than average, but people's subjective estimates are biased muc…
The effect of intelligence may be even harder to assess reliably - are smarter people simply committing less crimes or are they just harder to be found / convicted?
Re: Jurors more likely to convict unattractive people
#19Are unattractive people more likely to commit crimes?
Positive attributes tend to build on one another. The attractive are more likely to be wealthy because the wealthy are more likely to be healthy, and the healthy, to be attractive. The wealthy also tend to be better-educated, and the better-educated are less likely to turn to a life of crime--and so on. It is known in social psychology as the Matthew effect, and it explains why there are those among us who seemingly have it all (wealth, intelligence, beauty, happiness) and so many others who don't.
Re: Jurors more likely to convict unattractive people
#20I am curious why don't they keep the defendants and jury in a seperate room. They can let the jury hear all the arguments etc. I suppose the voice would still be a concern, but it should take care of the unattractive problem for the most part.