Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Injustice by Adam Benforado explores the biases that are embedded within the justice system. The American public trusts the system to base decisions solely off of facts and evidence – we trust our juries to make the right call, the eyewitnesses to remember, the detective to be truthful, and the judge to be impartial. Unfair demonstrates how much our biases and perceptions, in fact, contribute to these decisions; indeed, the evidence is unnerving.
A victim, for example, is treated differently in the emergency room if perceived as a drunk as opposed to someone with brain damage. A black suspect is subject to higher conviction rates and longer sentences than a white suspect for the same crime. The angle of a camera during an interrogation influences how the jury perceives the case. A judge provides harsher sentences before lunch.
In sum, Benforado (2015) makes a compelling argument and urges the American public to reconsider how we run our legal processes. To anyone who is interested in the psychology of our justice system, as well as the cognitive processes underlying judicial sentencing, I highly recommend reading this book!
-Maya Metser
Reference
Benforado, Adam. (2015). Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Injustice. New York: Crown Publishers.