What does it take for a criminal to be pardoned from their crimes? Is it rehabilitation, accountability, or time served? Apparently, all it takes is for a large part of society to find you attractive. Now this claim may seem far-fetched, but a study called Justice Needs a Blindfold by Psychology and Law scholars Ahola, Christanson, and Hellström suggested that there is a positive correlation between attractiveness and criminal justice based on the assumption that “what is beautiful is good”.
From the likes of Ted Bundy to Jeffrey Dahmer, people all over the world have sexualised these notorious figures, ultimately ignoring their violent crimes of murder and sexual abuse. Bundy was an American serial killer who targeted vulnerable women by presenting himself as a harmless person who either sought help or was an authoritative figure. Dahmer was also a serial killer who tortured his victims and targeted young men of colour. These two figures are especially important for this correlation because despite their obvious crimes, they received love letters from young women. Vidhi Damani on Medium also makes the point that a further distortion of these criminals’ humanity is made when they are portrayed by good-looking actors in movies made about them. The media plays a very important role in people’s idealisations, and a beautiful portrayal takes away from the brutality of what actually matters – their crimes.
Perhaps a more distinctive example of this concept can be made by one of South Africa’s own recent criminals. Vusimusi “Cat” Matlala is an accused criminal facing multiple charges including attempted murder, and yet there are countless tweets and TikTok comments defending him on the grounds of being attractive to said commenters. South African artist Focalistic made a song named after him, which further desensitises the gravity of his crimes. It begs the question – does society take crime seriously when it is done by people they find attractive?
The bizarre aspect about the attractive criminal analysis is that many of these widely known cases are about criminals who have been accused of violent crimes. In the social climate we live in today in South Africa, there is no question that there is a gender-based violence (GBV) epidemic. In November 2025, the Human Sciences Research Council reported that 33.1% of South African women over the age of 18 have experienced physical violence in their lifetime. When crimes are pardoned due to the attractiveness of the perpetrator, these statistics increase. In the GBV epidemic we live in, there should be no room for an increase in such horrible crimes.
There are many detrimental effects to society when the severity of crimes are downplayed surrounding the basic concept of injustice – victims do not get vindication, criminals do not serve deserved sentences, and society’s morale is pushed further down. Do we really want to live in a world where people do not fear the justice system because they are aware that they will get sympathy points for being conventionally attractive? As pretty as a face may be, there should be nothing this superficial to excuse behaviour that disgraces humans. So the next time you see an edit of a criminal on TikTok, remember that the world is becoming increasingly worse because of their actions.
Visual: Mila Jordaan
