At the very beginning of this year one photo went viral (I know surprise, surprise) winning the hearts of many American girls. Many were swept up in how attractive this man was that they did not really bother to look at the reason his picture was being taking. Jeremy Meeks was arrested for gun charges and the California police department posted his mugshot on Facebook when it went viral. He was sentenced in federal court with a two year bid. The most shocking part of this story is that if you Google Jeremy you will find headings about the hot mugshot guy, world’s most attractive crook, dreamy mcmugshot, and my personal favorite #prisonbae. There is not really any mention on how he was referred to as “one of the most violent criminals in the Stockton area” or really any concern for how serious his charges were (Dulac, "‘Hot mugshot guy’ Jeremy Meeks has been sentenced to 27 months in federal prison"). Yes many news reporters touched on the fact that he was going to prison and that he was a criminal but they were more concerned with his looks than anything. The Washington Post has an article about him titled “Hot mugshot guy Jeremy Meeks got some bad news in court today. (But there are photos!).” The article quickly mentions that his crime could get him up to ten years and a $250,000 but then goes right back to talking about the important stuff: how he got two Hollywood agents. The fact that he is a violent criminal just escapes everyones mind and they would rather discuss the more serious issues, like how he wants to model and act when he gets out of prison. The fact that he is attractive and can just get away with wrong doing is a common occurrence in our culture. In fact it just happened again last month.
Sarah Furay or “The Adorable Drug Kingpin” as she has been nicknamed was arrested last month for selling massive quantities of drugs. Police found 31.5 (yes I said 31.5) grams of cocaine, 126 grams of high grade marijuana, 29 ecstasy tablets, methamphetamine, and 60 doses of a drug similar to LSD. She was arrested and not only smiled (ridiculous, right?) in her mug shot but barely spent any time in jail and was released on a very low bail bond of $39,000. Black males face massive jail time for having much smaller amounts of drugs on their person so it is very interesting that she is caught with a significant amount of drugs and is already out on bail. If you were to go and read the comments on her articles people talk about how cute she is and how she reminds them of their own kids. Now I will admit some of her easier treatment by police is probably due to the fact that her father has been a DEA agent (ironic, I know) for the last twenty years. But nonetheless, many people think that she will barely face any charges and barely do any time because she is a young, white, pretty girl. The fact that she is pretty is a major point of emphasis when she is facing four felony charges just boggles my mind. We as a society put a major emphasis on being attractive.
A study by David Reynolds and Mark Sanders had one hundred and forty-four college students read a case about a negligent homicide. The defendant was described There was an ambiguous condition and an unambiguous condition. A 2 (strength of attractiveness) x 2 (attractiveness) x 2 (age) x2 (injury) design was used. The level of attractiveness was manipulated by altering descriptions of work history, marital status, and statements given by the defendant’s peers. Upon reading the case the students had to sentence him to prison ranging from one to twenty-five years and they also rated his attractiveness on a scale of one to nine. The results showed that in the ambiguous condition there was no significant difference in the mean sentence time but in the unambiguous condition there was a strong effect of attractiveness. Attractive defendants sentences were significantly smaller than unattractive defendants. Age also had a significant effect. In the ambiguous condition younger defendants had significantly longer sentences than older defendants. The social attractiveness of the defendant played a role in the length of their sentence. Since we tend to associate positive attributes with people who are more attractive it leads us to pass over their wrongdoings. This just goes to show that being attractive really does afford you special treatment in society.
Alliyah Veilleux
Alliyah Veilleux
http://ezproxy.holycross.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=1975-27410-001&site=ehost-live
Works Cited
New Twist in Arrest of TX Teen Dubbed 'The Adorable Drug Kingpin' (2015, December 4). Retrieved December 5, 2015, from http://insider.foxnews.com/2015/12/04/adorable-drug-kingpin-sarah-furay-daughter-dea-agent
Du lac, J. (2015, February 6). ‘Hot mugshot guy’ Jeremy Meeks has been sentenced to 27 months in federal prison. Retrieved December 5, 2015, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/02/06/hot-mugshot-guy-jeremy-meeks-has-been-sentenced-to-27-months-in-federal-prison/
It's more than a little scary to think about how opinions of attractiveness may pervade even situations as serious as society's treatment of criminals. An interesting perspective somewhat opposite of the research you brought in - how are unattractive people disadvantaged? These effects, in conjunction with the positive effects for attractive individuals that you discussed, might quantify the combined effect of attractiveness and power/privilege that you explored. Really good job, Alliyah. I enjoyed reading your post! -Victoria
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