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Two studies are reported in this paper. In the first study, the hypothesis that “unattractive” defendants receive more severe recommendations for sentences for a given crime than “attractive” defendants was examined. Race, socioeconomic status, and religious belief were intentionally confounded in the first study with the result that the hypothesis was clearly confirmed. In the second study, race, socioeconomic level, and religious belief were examined in isolation from each other (a 2 × 2 × 2 design) to determine their relative effect on sentencing. Race and belief explained significant proportions of the discriminatory sentencing effect, but socioeconomic status did not. Some preliminary work was done on the effects of perceivers' characteristics, indicating that punitiveness and racial attitudes warrant further study. ‘Subjects were 380 members of organizations for retired persons and church groups.
Gray et al. (Tue,) studied this question.