A Punishing Look: Skin Tone, Facial Features, and Criminal Sentencing

惩罚性的表情：肤色、面部特征和刑事量刑

• 批准号: 1228003
• 负责人: Ryan King
• 金额: $ 19万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Albany
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2014-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1228003&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Punishing; Look; Skin; Tone; Facial; Punishing; Look; Skin; Tone; Facial

Research on crime and punishment has long been concerned with racial and ethnic disparities in criminal sentencing, and indeed many studies have found what theories of court processing generally predict: blacks and Hispanics are on average sentenced more harshly than whites, even when taking into account the offender's criminal history and crime severity. Yet prior work in this area rarely considers the substantial heterogeneity that exists within and between racial groups. For instance, President Barack Obama, Justice Clarence Thomas and Presidential Advisor Valerie Jarrett each identify as African American, but they differ markedly in their skin tone. The present research investigates whether such differences in skin color are consequential for decisions made in American criminal courts. In addition, the research examines whether facial characteristics of defendants, such as Afrocentric features, facial tattoos, or other indicators of non-conformity influence punishment outcomes, as well as the extent that these factors might be contingent on the race of the judge. These and related questions motivate this research, which systematically investigates the effects of offender skin tone and physical appearance on criminal sentencing outcomes. Booking photos from a large sample of male offenders in two Minnesota counties are coded on several criteria, thus allowing for an analysis of color and appearance effects. These data are combined with sentencing information from the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission for a sample of approximately 1,000 males convicted of felonies in 2009. In addition to random samples of white and black defendants, Hispanic, Asian, and Native Americans are oversampled to enable analyses of these understudied groups. This study contributes unique knowledge to ongoing debates over racial equality in society and significantly advances extant research and theorizing on decision making processes and outcomes involving unwarranted disparities in the American criminal justice system. The findings also inform policy debates concerning sentencing guidelines and may push the study of race and punishment in a new direction by determining whether skin hue, and not merely categorical race, matters in the halls of justice.

关于犯罪和惩罚的研究长期以来一直关注刑事判决中的种族和种族差异，实际上，许多研究发现了法院处理理论的普遍预测：即使考虑到犯罪者的犯罪记录和犯罪严重性，黑人和西班牙裔平均而言，即使在考虑到白人的情况下也比白人更严厉。 然而，该领域的先前工作很少考虑种族群体内部和之间存在的实质异质性。 例如，总统巴拉克·奥巴马（Barack Obama），大法官克拉伦斯·托马斯（Clarence Thomas）和总统顾问瓦莱丽·贾瑞特（Valerie Jarrett）各自确定为非裔美国人，但他们的肤色明显不同。本研究调查了这种肤色上这种差异是否对美国刑事法院做出的决定是结果。 此外，该研究还研究了被告的面部特征，例如非洲中心特征，面部纹身或其他非符合性指标会影响惩罚结果，以及这些因素可能与法官的种族竞争的程度。 这些和相关的问题激发了这项研究，该研究系统地研究了罪犯的肤色和外表对刑事判决结果的影响。 在两个明尼苏达州县的大量男性犯罪者样本中预订照片是根据几个标准进行编码的，从而可以分析颜色和外观效果。 这些数据与明尼苏达州量刑指南委员会的量刑信息结合在一起，该委员会在2009年对大约1,000名被判重罪的男性样本。除了随机的白人和黑人被告，西班牙裔，亚洲和美洲原住民和美国原住民的样本外，还经过了过态，以启动这些被知识的群体的分析。这项研究为关于社会种族平等的持续辩论做出了独特的知识，并显着提高了现有的研究，并在决策过程和涉及美国刑事司法系统中无理差异的结果中进行了理论。 这些调查结果还为有关量刑准则的政策辩论提供了依据，并可能通过确定皮肤色调（而不仅仅是分类种族）在司法大厅中的重要性来推动对种族和惩罚的研究。