Thesis
The face of a predator: facial feature bias and psychopathic personality assessment in sex offender civil commitments
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
05/2020
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000000069
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/119638
Abstract
There is growing evidence that even the most carefully designed assessments are not
immune to human biases. Compared to their White counterparts, Black people who encounter
the justice system tend to be given harsher punishments and longer sentences. Although there is
some evidence that people can reduce their tendencies to make decisions along racial categories,
research suggests that more subtle forms of bias linked to stereotypical facial features may be
harder to combat. The present study examined if and how biases tied to stereotypical Afrocentric
facial features influence ratings on the Psychopathy Checklist- Revised (PCL-R) in Sexually
Violent Predator (SVP) cases. The results indicated that Afrocentric facial features may not be
associated with PCL-R scores for Black defendants. In contrast, Latino offenders who score
above the forensic cutoff for psychopathy may possess more Afrocentric features than Latino
offenders who scored below 30 on the PCL-R. Thus, Afrocentric facial feature bias may play a
role in assessment during the post-conviction civil commitment process for Latino sex offenders.
Metrics
8 File views/ downloads
35 Record Views
Details
- Title
- The face of a predator: facial feature bias and psychopathic personality assessment in sex offender civil commitments
- Creators
- Madeline Nagel
- Contributors
- DAVID MARCUS (Degree Supervisor) - Washington State University, Psychology, Department ofCHRISTOPHER THOMAS BARRY (Committee Member) - Washington State University, Psychology, Department ofCARRIE CUTTLER (Committee Member) - Washington State University, Psychology, Department of
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Psychology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Format
- pdf
- Number of pages
- 39
- Identifiers
- 99900590963501842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis