Weight Bias in the Courtroom Focus of New Study

A recent study investigating weight bias in the courtroom has apparently
concluded that both the “weight and gender of a defendant may affect juror
perceptions of guilt and responsibility.” N. A. Schvey, et al., “The influence
of a defendant’s body weight on perceptions of guilt,” International Journal
of Obesity, January 2013. The study relied on responses from 471 lean and
overweight adults “who read a vignette describing a case of check fraud while
viewing one of four images (a lean male, a lean female, an obese male or an
obese female)” and then “rated the defendant’s culpability on a 5-point Likert
scale and completed measures of anti-fat attitudes.”

According to the study, “male participants judged the obese female defendant
as significantly guiltier than the lean female defendant,” although female
respondents “judged the two female defendants equally regardless of body weight.” Lean male participants also apparently believed that “the obese female defendant was more aware of insufficient funds… [and] more likely to
issue another fraudulent check in the future as compared with the lean female
defendant.” In addition, the researchers found “no differences in assessments
of guilt or culpability between the obese male and the lean male defendant
among any of the participants.”

“This finding is consistent with previous research, indicating that obese
females suffer more weight-related stigmatization than males,” conclude the
study’s authors. “The finding that weight bias may extend to the courtroom
is concerning and signals the need for greater awareness and prevention of
weight-based discrimination in legal settings.”