Estrada-Reynolds Victoria C, Reynolds Joshua J, McCrea Sean M, Freng Scott
Department of Psychology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA.
Psychiatr Psychol Law. 2016 Nov 28;24(3):392-409. doi: 10.1080/13218719.2016.1247639. eCollection 2017.
Previous research has established that the appearance of criminal suspects and defendants can affect subsequent legal decisions. Specifically, researchers have proposed that (1) masculine suspects are believed to commit more stereotypically male crimes (e.g., burglary), (2) masculine suspects are believed to commit more violent crimes (e.g., assault), and (3) masculinity is a general cue for committing crime. The current study sought to test these competing hypotheses regarding masculine appearance and perceived criminality. Across three studies, participants read a brief crime scenario and were asked to select out of a lineup the suspect they believed had committed the crime. Suspect masculinity and type of crime were manipulated to determine whether the degree of masculinity influenced whether participants believed they had committed the crime. Results showed that participants consistently associated masculinity with committing violent crime and showed some evidence for the general criminality hypothesis on secondary measures. These findings have important implications regarding law enforcement, eyewitness and juror bias, and legal decisions.
先前的研究已经证实，犯罪嫌疑人和被告人的外貌会影响后续的法律裁决。具体而言，研究人员提出：（1）人们认为具有男性气质的嫌疑人犯下更多典型的男性犯罪（如入室盗窃）；（2）人们认为具有男性气质的嫌疑人犯下更多暴力犯罪（如袭击）；（3）男性气质是犯罪的一个普遍线索。当前的研究旨在检验这些关于男性外貌与感知到的犯罪行为的相互竞争的假设。在三项研究中，参与者阅读了一个简短的犯罪场景，并被要求从一组嫌疑人中选出他们认为实施了犯罪的人。对嫌疑人的男性气质和犯罪类型进行了操控，以确定男性气质的程度是否会影响参与者是否认为他们实施了犯罪。结果表明，参与者始终将男性气质与实施暴力犯罪联系在一起，并在次要测量指标上为一般犯罪假设提供了一些证据。这些发现对执法、目击证人及陪审员偏见以及法律裁决具有重要意义。
