Dressing the part: The influence of police attire on outcomes in a simulated traffic violation case
| Author | Quintan Crough,Craig Bennell |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14613557221145546 |
| Published date | 01 March 2023 |
| Date | 01 March 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Original Research Articles |
Dressing the part: The influence of police
attire on outcomes in a simulated traffic
violation case
Quintan Crough
Ontario Tech University, Canada
Craig Bennell
Carleton University, Canada
Abstract
Consistently outlined in juror decision-making research is that seemingly irrelevant variables (e.g., the appearance of
defendants or plaintiffs) can impact judicial proceedings. Although police officers frequently appear in courtrooms, limited
literature exists that assesses the impact of officer attire in this setting. The current study exposed par ticipants to a mock-
trial transcript outlining a traffic violation case in which officer gender and attire were manipulated. Participants then ren-
dered a verdict, before providing ratings of officer credibility and police legitimacy, using the Police Legitimacy Scale (PLS).
The female officer was viewed as significantly more credible than the male officer and participants’PLS scores predicted
their verdicts. Although no attire differences were found, findings might have implications for uniform policies.
Keywords
Police, police uniforms, gender, credibility, verdict
Submitted 2 Apr 2022, Revise received 31 Aug 2022, accepted 27 Oct 2022
In the case of Estelle v. Williams (1976), Williams was on
trial for attempted murder and was found guilty.
However, Williams appealed his conviction on the
grounds that his constitutional right to a fair trial was
infringed upon because he was required to wear a prison
jumpsuit during the trial. This claim was based on the
belief that the orange jumpsuit caused the jury to perceive
him as already guilty. The Court of Appeals ruled that
Williams did not have to stand trial in prison wear and
that this violated Williams’right to due process; as a
result, Williams’conviction was overturned. Eventually,
the Supreme Court reversed this decision and reinstated
the conviction on 21 June 1976. Interestingly, the view
that a defendant’s attire might influence how others see
them is consistent with jury research on the topic (Lown,
1977; Schafer, 2009). It appears that to be accepted, at
least in the academic community, attire can be associated
with preconceived notions on the part of jurors, which
could potentially result in an unfair trial.
It is reasonable to assume that the power of attire to
potentially bias people is not limited to just the orange
jumpsuit of a prison inmate. The current study sought to
examine how this situation might play out on the other
end of the spectrum; specifically, we attempted to determine
whether different forms of attire worn by a police officer in
court impacts perceptions of officer credibility and case ver-
dicts. We could find very little previous research assessing
this issue, and what information we could gather (e.g., from
internal documents and discussions with officers) suggests
Corresponding author:
Quintan Crough, Ontario Tech University, 11 Simcoe St N, Oshawa,
Ontario L1G 4R7, Canada.
Email: quintan.crough@ontariotechu.net
Original Research Article
International Journal of
Police Science & Management
2023, Vol. 25(1) 106–115
© The Author(s) 2023
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DOI: 10.1177/14613557221145546
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