A black criminology professor at Florida State University ditched his $190,000-a-year-job after he was accused of altering statistical data in order to push the divisive notion that racism in America is more common than it actually is.
Six of Eric Stewart’s studies dating back to 2006 were retracted, the Daily Mail reports, after they were found to include data based on altered sample sizes.
One study Stewart co-authored in 2011 sought to show that the public increasingly demanded longer sentences for black and Hispanic criminals as the black and Hispanic populations grew.
These are the titles of the retracted studies by Eric Stewart, a celebrated liberal academic whose peer-reviewed research on systemic white racism used fabricated data:
•Lynchings, racial threat, and whites’ punitive views toward blacks
•A Legacy of Lynchings: Perceived Black… pic.twitter.com/bBgFcNBLkf— Andy Ngô ️ (@MrAndyNgo) April 15, 2023
The paper aimed to test the public’s prejudicial views and determine if they were affecting sentencing, but his co-author, fellow criminologist Justin Pickett, called Stewart out, publishing his own paper to show that the original, untampered data revealed no relationship between the population of minority groups and the sentences they received.
Some of the phony data was introduced to the joint paper just prior to its publication, Pickett noted.
According to him, their study was based on just 500 respondents, less than half the 1,184 respondents claimed in the paper with Stewart. And rather than include data from all 326 counties involved, the data was hand-picked from just 91.
After bringing the discrepancies to Stewart’s attention, Pickett said he was stalled by Stewart and the other co-authors for four months, The Florida Standard reported.
“There is only one possible conclusion from reanalyzing the data I have,” Pickett stated. “The sample was not just duplicated in the analysis for the published article; the data were also altered, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and those alterations produced the article’s main findings.”
Four additional studies Stewart authored between 2006 and 2015 were also retracted. According to Stewart, Pickett “lynched me and my academic career.”
The racism in America is so bad the data on it needs to be faked.
— Juno Who (@Junowhotoo) April 15, 2023
Though Stewart has denied the allegations, a sixth study, conducted in 2020, “drew the attention of an FSU committee, who gathered to discuss Stewart’s findings,” journalist C.G. Jones writes in an opinion piece for Human Events.
“Stewart has not shown up to work in the last months, which could mark the end of his 16-year career at the institution and his long history of academic malpractice,” Jones reports. “Additionally, it is curious why Stewart would feel the need to fabricate data if racism was truly as prevalent as he made it out to be in his so-called study.”
For Jones, Stewart’s actions have implications that go far beyond FSU’s credibility.
“Stewart’s action raises questions about the overall integrity of academic research, especially in fields that rely heavily on population input,” he writes. “If research data and findings can so easily be fabricated without strict oversight, it has to make one wonder how many other academic research projects have been altered in order to push a particular ideological worldview.”
“The fissures of academic integrity have been exposed many times, including the Grievance studies affair, where, in 2018, three academics deliberately fabricated material that successfully passed through academic peer review because it bolstered the institution’s leanings on specific ideological positions,” he notes.
Jones quotes Pickett, who said there is a “huge monetary incentive” to fake data and there is “no accountability.” Few who are guilty of doing it, Pickett claimed, are ever caught.
When FSU did catch Stewart, Jones argues, they should have acted.
“Florida State University should have taken action after the first discovery of Stewart’s research fabrication, but they continued to allow him to fabricate material while making a lucrative living by maintaining his professorship at the institution,” he writes. “His exit from the university should have happened a long time ago.”
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Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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