Justice Not As Blind As Previously Thought

NotSoHeavyD3 writes "I doubt this is much of a surprise but apparently Cornell University did a study that seems to show you're more likely to get convicted if you're ugly. From the article: 'According to a Cornell University study, unattractive defendants are 22 percent more likely to be convicted than good-looking ones. And the unattractive also get slapped with harsher sentences — an average of 22 months longer in prison.'"

Comments

Did they adjust for meth and crack use?

[elrous0]

Those will take a real toll on your looks. They also have a nasty tendency to turn people into thieves, prostitutes, and murderers. Also, being white trash will tend to age you about ten years, and it usually also comes with at least two or three DUI-on-an-ATV/public-intoxication/starting-a-fight-down-at-the-bar arrests.

Re:Did they adjust for meth and crack use?

[cgenman]

According to TFA, the researchers used theoretical juries of undergrads, and merely swapped the photo associated with them. I haven't seen the photos myself, but researchers usually use a distribution of attractive or unattractive photos that don't include "disfigured in a bar fight" and "barely cognizant heroin addict."

Of course, being a theoretical study on paper does mean that real-world influences could be much lower... or higher. For example, any signs of remorse in the courtroom, performance on the stand, etc might be much more significant to the overall judgement process. Or maybe the juries take real courtroom activity more seriously. Or maybe undergrads all just need to get laid.

yeah, well

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe they should have thought about that BEFORE being ugly...

Good hint for slashdot users

[notommy]

who are in jail and are wondering why their prison term was longer than the average.

Lemme be the first...

[MyLongNickName]

Any time a study comes out, twelvity million Slashdotters start chanting "Correlation!=Causation". None actually read the article. In fact, most have their rant typed out long before the story hits slashdot, and simply cut and paste into the comment box.

So, in the interest of keeping up this fine tradition, I offer the following:

1) Ugly people are more likely to actually commit the crime. Makes sense. Pretty people are less likely to need to do a crime as they are more likely to get good employement.
2) Committing a crime MAKES you ugly. Far fetched? Maybe. But I am sure those stupid researchers who only get by on grant money never thought of such a thing.

Clearly, I a faceless Slashdotter am more capable of analyzing the situation without actually reading the article, or giving it more than 20 seconds of thought.

Can the rest of my Slashdot bretheren help support my contentions?

Well Duh!

[happy_place]

Any movie or TeeVee show has shown this for years... there is a caveat, however...They can be good-looking and convicted if theyhave menacing music to accompany them...

Re:Correlation is not causation

[Anonymous Coward]

Read TFA please. The study was done with students at Cornell, who were asked to give their verdict after reading the closing arguments from the trial. The pictures of ugly and non-ugly people were inserted into these case studies, so that the same facts were presented as though they were about two different people.

The ugly might very well commit more crimes, but this study eliminates that as a confounding factor.

Re:But wait...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Lots and lots of little boys?

Re:Correlation is not causation

[bigdavex]

if i see another +5 insightful "correlation != causation" my brain is going to fucking explode.

OK, but how do we know that your brain exploding isn't causing these posts to be moderated highly?