Appearance Bias and Crime How Appearance Affects Crime and the Crime Control Process

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.

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 Ulibarrí; 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.

Bonnie Berry is the Director of the Social Problems Research Group and formerly university faculty. Her research interests include criminology, appearance bias, animal rights, academic misconduct and ethical violations, and all measures of social inequality. She is the author of several books and numerous scholarly journal articles. She has been awarded, among other prizes, the Inconvenient Woman of the Year Award from the American Society of Criminology's Women and Crime Division.