Appearance Bias and Crime
Appearance Bias and Crime
Relying on experts in criminology and sociology, Appearance Bias and Crime describes the role of bias against citizens based on their physical appearance. From the point of suspicion to the decisions to arrest, convict, sentence, and apply the death penalty, crime control agents are influenced by the appearance of offenders; moreover, victims of crime are held blameworthy depending on their physical appearance. The editor and contributing authors discuss timely topics such as Black Lives Matter, terrorism, LGBTQ appearance, human trafficking, Indigenous appearance, the disabled, and the attractive versus unattractive among us. Demographic traits such as race, gender, age, and social class influence physical appearance and, thus, judgments about criminal involvement and victimization. This volume describes the social movements relevant to appearance bias, recommends legislative and policy changes, offers practical advice to social control agencies on how to reduce appearance bias, and proposes a new sub-discipline of appearance criminology.
- Examines crime, victimization, and crime control in an entirely new context
- Allows the reader to view crime, victimization, and crime control in novel ways, never before fully considered
- Covers the range of crime control, as influenced by physical appearance bias, from the point of suspicion to the death penalty
- Enlightens the reader to the previously unconsidered effects of physical appearance in crime control decisions
Reviews & endorsements
'Appearance Bias and Crime fully and intricately analyzes a previously unexamined form of inequality that intersects with criminal involvement and criminal victimization. This path-breaking new book details the influence of physical appearance on all stages of the crime control process. In a comprehensive study of public and official judgements made about suspects, offenders, and victims, we find that physical appearance - overlapping with demographic traits, such as race, gender, age, social class and with socially denigrated features such LGBTQ status, unusual grooming, disability, and unattractiveness - impacts decisions made about ordinary street crime as well as human trafficking, terrorism, and other forms of criminality. Explanations and solutions for appearance bias are offered. A must-read for all students of criminology.' Joanne Belknap, University of Colorado, Boulder and author of The Invisible Woman: Gender, Crime, and Justice
'A body of original and seminal scholarship comprise of fifteen erudite articles, Appearance Bias and Crime should be considered as an essential, core addition to college and university library Criminology collections and supplemental curriculum lists. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of judicial policy makers, students, academia, social activists, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that Appearance Bias and Crime is also available in a paperback edition and in a digital book format.' Wisconsin Bookwatch: Midwest Book Review
Product details
June 2019Paperback
9781108432016
308 pages
227 × 152 × 18 mm
0.46kg
20 b/w illus.
Available
Table of Contents
- Part I. Unattractiveness, Criminality, and Victimization:
- 1. Appearance and delinquency Robert Agnew
- 2. 'Ugly' criminals and 'ugly' victims: a quantitative analysis of add health data Brent Teasdale and Bonnie Berry
- Part II. Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality as Targeted Identities:
- 3. Racial profiling and reconciliation: the quest for indigenous justice in Canada Terry Wotherspoon and John Hansen
- 4. Black Lives Matter: the watchdog for the criminal justice system Lorenzo M. Boyd and Kimberly Conway Dumpson
- 5. An absence of appearance identifiers: misguided moral crusades in anti-human trafficking Billy James UlibarrÃ
- Part III. The Process of Social Control as Influenced by Appearance:
- 6. Becoming and being a woman prisoner: does appearance matter? Brenda Chaney
- 7. The impact of victim attractiveness on victim blameworthiness and defendant guilt determinations in cases of domestic and sexual assault Jennifer Wareham, Bonnie Berry, Brenda Sims Blackwell and Denise Paquette Boots
- 8. Do attractive women 'get away' with traffic violations? An observational study of police responses to traffic stops Brent Teasdale, Taylor Gann and Dean Dabney
- 9. The police 'presence': public service versus intimidation Stephen A. Bishopp
- Part IV. Identifying Terrorists, Mistakenly or Not, by Appearance:
- 10. Dressed to kill: jihadi appearance and its significance in Austria and beyond Daniela Pisoiu
- 11. Charisma, prisoner radicalization, and terrorism: the role of appearance Mark S. Hamm
- Part VI. Very Visible Differences: Orientation, Disability, Freaks, and Clowns and their Relationship to Crime and Victimization:
- 12. Queer looking: appearance and LGBTQ citizens' victimization and interactions with the criminal justice system Elicka Peterson Sparks and Ian Skinner
- 13. Visible disabilities and risk of interpersonal victimization Heidi L. Scherer and Bradford W. Reyns
- 14. Remarkably unique human appearances: scary clowns and freaks Bonnie Berry
- 15. Appearance criminology: a new approach toward equitable treatment Bonnie Berry
- Index.
