Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology, Essay Example

Research in the field of criminal justice is highly varied and multi-directional, since there are still many things, phenomena, and trends that both theoretical and practical research cannot explain. One of the issues that is of high interest for me is the topic of the connection between physical attractiveness and the prison sentence that criminal get after the court proceedings, since this topic is located at the intersection of social psychology and criminal justice. Therefore, it involves a complex of considerations regarding the perceived human nature and its links to appearance. Judging from this interest, I have developed the following research questions for my future research:

1. Is physical attractiveness directly connected with the length of prison sentence to which criminals are sentenced by the jury?
2. Do the gender of the defendants and the crime for which they are tried affect the perceptions of physical attractiveness and, consequently, the length of prison sentence?
3. What characteristics of physical appearance or personality of the defendant are usually associated with a positive, virtuous nature?

As Hagan (2010) admitted, the theory in criminal justice represents an attempt to develop plausible explanations of reality, and to classify and organize events, explaining their causes. Hence, the present research is aimed at developing a plausible explanation of why attractive people spend less time in prison, and to identify the variables that affect the jury’s decision about the prison sentence. The hypothesis guiding the present research is that attractive people indeed spend less time in prison and get milder sentences for crimes; however, in specific cases (such as rape), physical attractiveness may not affect the decision of the jury. The theories from the field of social psychology will be applied to explain the subjective perceptions about the links between crimes and physical attractiveness.

References

Hagan, F. (2010). Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.