Abstract

Objectives: Criminal stereotypes often interfere with the ability of the criminal justice system to provide fair outcomes, therefore the use of risk assessment information (RAI) has been considered a method to reduce such effects. However, research is limited. To address this gap in the literature, we investigated the effect of offender characteristics (OC) and provision of RAI on sentencing, judgement of risk and social distance kept towards violent offenders.
Design: A 3 (race: Asian, Black, White) x 2 (attractiveness: attractive, unattractive) x 2 (gender: male, female) x 2 (RAI: present, absent) full factorial design was used.
Methods: 239 participants read one of 24 vignettes accompanied by an image from the Chicago Face Database. Following this, they completed risk judgement, sentencing and social distance questionnaires. Analysis was conducted using linear regressions, binomial logistic regression, and four-way between-subjects ANOVA.
Results: Although sentencing decisions were not significantly altered by OC and RAI, risk judgement scores increased. This disfavoured White, female, attractive offenders. Finally, social distance was not affected significantly by OC but increased with the provision of RAI.
Conclusions: This study has revealed that OC can impact sentencing decisions, risk judgement scores and social distance kept between members of the public and a violent offender and that provision of RAI may play an important role in exacerbating the effect of these offender characteristics. Implications of findings are discussed.