"Even with the Same Beating, Chinese Found Guilty"... Crime Judgments Differ by Nationality

86% Guilty Verdict for Chinese vs. 64% for Koreans
"Negative Image of Chinese Influences Judgment"

A study has drawn attention by revealing that judgments of guilt or innocence vary significantly depending on the defendant's nationality, even for the same crime.

On the 24th, the recent issue of the Journal of the Korean Psychological Association published a paper titled "The Effect of Stereotypical Crime and Defendant's Nationality on Punishment Judgment: Focusing on Korea, China, and the United States," which contains these findings.

The research team conducted an experiment with 504 adult men and women nationwide aged 20 and over (252 men and 252 women each), presenting crime scenarios with defendants of different nationalities and asking them to judge guilt or innocence.

The crime scenario presented was an assault case. It assumed a situation where the defendant threw a punch after a quarrel with a stranger at a bar in Seoul. The prosecution argued that the defendant was guilty of assaulting the other party, while the defense insisted that the other party had grabbed the defendant by the collar first and verbally abused them, claiming self-defense.

A scene from the movie "The Outlaws," featuring a Chinese crime organization [Image source=Naver Movies]

The researchers explicitly stated the defendant's nationality at the beginning of the crime scenario, such as defendant Wang Wei of Chinese nationality and defendant Robert of American nationality, so it was immediately clear.

The experiment results showed that the rate of judging the defendant guilty was 85.7% when the defendant was Chinese. This was significantly higher than for Americans (66.1%) and Koreans (64.3%). However, no significant differences were observed in crimes involving voice phishing and drug smuggling.

The research team stated, "The significance of the study lies in confirming crime stereotypes against foreign groups," and interpreted that "the negative framing effect of the media regarding Chinese people likely influenced the guilt or innocence judgments."

They added, "It was found that greater attention to the fairness of judges is required in trials involving foreign defendants," and "This can be used as basic data for training criminal justice practitioners and jurors in citizen participation trials."