Florida State University criminology professor Eric Stewart abruptly left his $190,000-a-year position following allegations that he misrepresented data on racism studies during his 16-year tenure.
A total of six studies were retracted over claims that he fabricated data by altering sample sizes to make the results appear more racist, the Florida Standard reports.
The original accusation came from Justin Pickett, a University of Albany criminology professor who co-authored a report on race and crime with Stewart in 2011.
In the study, the criminologists were looking to test whether the public was increasingly demanding longer sentences for black and Hispanic criminals as those minority populations grew.
In his 2019 complaint, Pickett said their findings showed no relationship between the growth of minority groups and the severity of criminal sentences handed to them.
Despite the result, the paper was published with “altered” data to claim there was a correlation, with Pickett noting that many of the changes appeared to have been tacked on just before publication.
The biggest change Pickett pointed out was their sample size growing to 1,184 respondents even though they only had 500, and that the study’s conclusion came from handpicking the data from 91 counties instead of the full list of 326.
Pickett said that his complaint was ignored by the university for months, and it was only after four more complaints were made against Stewart’s other studies focusing on race that the school launched a committee to look into the matter.
The three-person committee contained two individuals who had co-authored studies with Stewart, the Standard reported.
Despite the studies being retracted, the committee ultimately concluded that there was not enough evidence to conclude there was fraud, and ended the probe into Stewart’s work.
Stewart claimed that Pickett’s effectively “lynched” him and his “academic character.”
Pickett told the Standard that there is a monetary incentive for falsifying data in research and there is very little accountability for those that do it.
