Researchers have said a study that found people who speak with accents perceived as working class are more likely to be suspected of committing a crime raises “serious concerns” about bias in the UK criminal justice system.
People with accents from Liverpool, Newcastle, Bradford and London risked being stereotyped, according to research led by the University of Cambridge in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University.
The stereotypes could affect all parts of the system, from arrest to sentencing, and undermined not only suspects and defendants but also the testimony of witnesses, researchers said.
The study raised particular concern about accented speakers being incorrectly selected from voice identification parades.
The findings, published in Frontiers in Communication, said despite progress in equality and diversity in some parts of British life, including “working class” and regional accents becoming more prominent on television and radio, harmful stereotypes remain.
“Our findings bring into sharp focus the disadvantage that speakers of some accents may still face in the criminal justice system,” said the lead author, Alice Paver, from the University of Cambridge’s phonetics laboratory and Jesus College, Cambridge.
“Voices play a powerful role in the criminal justice system, and police officers, lawyers and juries are all susceptible to judging voices based on stereotypes, whether they are aware of it or not. As things stand, listeners think some accents sound guiltier than others and we should all be concerned about that.”
The researchers asked 180 participants, male and female, from across the UK to listen to recordings of 10 regionally accented male voices: Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Newcastle and standard southern British English (SSBE), also referred to as RP (received pronunciation).
Participants were then asked to rate the voices on 10 social traits: educated, intelligent, rich, working class, friendly, honest, kind, trustworthy, aggressive and confident; as well as on 10 morally good, bad and ambiguous behaviours that included a range of crime types.
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These behaviours included: return a lost wallet to its owner, stand up for someone who is being harassed, cheat on a romantic partner, report a relative to the police for a minor offence, drive dangerously, physically assault someone, shoplift, touch someone sexually without consent, vandalise a shop front.
The RP-like accent was perceived as the least likely to behave in criminal ways, while the Liverpool and Bradford accents were the most likely.
However, non-English accents, in particular Belfast and Glasgow’s, were rated significantly less likely to behave in criminal ways than almost all other accents. They were also thought most likely to stand up for someone being harassed and least likely to exhibit morally bad behaviours.
The London and Liverpool accents were rated most likely to touch someone sexually without consent, but they were very closely followed by the southern England, RP accent. Participants thought the RP accent was more likely to commit a sexual assault than any of the other offences tested.
The Glasgow and Belfast speakers were thought the least likely to commit this sexual offence.
Previous studies have found the Newcastle accent rates highly for traits such as friendliness, but this study recorded less positive ratings for kindness, honesty, friendliness and trustworthiness.
By contrast, the Birmingham accent, which has rated poorly in previous research across these measures, performed better than Bradford, Bristol, Liverpool, London and Newcastle in this study.
Turning to the ramifications for criminal justice, Paver said: “Jurors are not currently made aware of or warned against letting voice- or accent-based prejudice sway their decisions. If we’re asked to judge whether someone is guilty or not, and they have got a particular accent, we need to be sure we are not making that judgment because we think they sound like a bad guy.”
The research was carried out in collaboration with Prof Natalie Braber and Dr David Wright at Nottingham Trent University’s school of arts and humanities, and Dr Nikolas Pautz, of NTU’s department of psychology.