Do the Clothes Make the Man or Does the Man Make Bail?

• In Event: Appearance, Visual Cues, and Gender in the Courts

Abstract

This study seeks to expand the extant research on factors affecting bail decisions by exploring the relationship between defendants’ clothing at bail hearings and bail outcomes. To do so, the proposed research project leverages arrest and court records. Arrest data are obtained from the Chicago Police Department (CPD)’s arrest database. Court data are downloaded from the Cook County State Attorney’s Office (CCSAO) dashboard. Booking pictures from the CPD are coded to assess the level of formality of clothing as well as the coder’s perceptions of other arrestee characteristics (e.g., Afrocentric features, attractiveness, tattoos). Using these data, this study assesses whether defendants' clothing affects the probability of receiving bail as well as the bail amount requested of the defendant. Conclusions and policy implications as well as suggestions for future directions will be discussed.

Author

• Sara-Laure Faraji, University of Maryland