Could the Peaky Blinders have helped the reputation of the West Midlands accent?

People with a "posh" English accent are seen as least likely to commit most crimes – while the reputation of our twang is on the up.

A University of Cambridge study, in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University, sought to understand people's perceptions around 10 different accents across the UK - and concluded listeners think some accents sound guiltier than others.

Surprisingly perhaps, the reputation of the Birmingham and Black Country accent has improved, despite its association in recent years with the roughish Peaky Blinders.

Our accent has come near the bottom of previous surveys, but has now managed to pull itself up to something resembling mid-table respectability.

In terms of overall criminality, the authors found the English posh accent was perceived as the least likely to behave in criminal ways, while the Liverpool and Bradford accents were the most likely. Birmingham and the Black Country was sixth in the 10 accents judged.

There is a serious motive behind the research. The authors said theirs is the first research to identify links between listener perceptions of morality, criminality, and social traits and they warned of the disadvantage some people could face in the criminal justice system because of the way they speak.

The fact those speaking with a Received Pronunciation (RP), seen as posh, accent were perceived more likely to commit a sexual assault than any of the other offences tested could indicate a change in attitudes around who might carry out this type of crime, researchers said.

The peer-reviewed research, published in the Frontiers in Communication journal, recorded less positive ratings for kindness, honesty, friendliness and trustworthiness for the Newcastle accent than previous studies it had carried out..

But the Birmingham and Black Country accent, which they noted had rated poorly for these traits previously, came out better in this research than Bradford, Bristol, Liverpool, London and Newcastle. It is believed exposure to our accent through shows like Peaky Blinders have allowed people from elsewhere in the country to become more comfortable with its tones.

The Glaswegian accent was most closely associated with honourable behaviour while Scouse was perceived as more likely to be aligned with general crime.

A group of 180 people, half of whom were male and half female, listened to recordings of the various accents and were asked to rate them on different social traits including sounding educated, intelligent, rich, working class, honest and aggressive.

They also rated the accents on various behaviours such as returning a lost wallet to its owner and standing up for someone who is being harassed, to types of crime from shoplifting to touching someone sexually without consent. 

While the authors accepted the participant group was small, they said they believed it was still a representative group, covering all four nations of the UK and looking into more types of crime and a wider range of accents than previous studies.

Alice Paver, from Cambridge University’s phonetics laboratory,  said: "Our findings bring into sharp focus the disadvantage that speakers of some accents may still face in the criminal justice system. 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're aware of it or not.

"As things stand, listeners think some accents sound guiltier than others and we should all be concerned about that."

Here are the accents in order of perception from most to least likely to take part in criminal behaviour 

1. Liverpool

2. Bradford

3. Newcastle

4. London (cockney)

5. Cardiff

6. Birmingham

7. Bristol

8. Glasgow

9. Belfast

10. Standard Southern British English (SSBE), also referred to as RP.

Here are the accents in order of perception from most to least likely to commit a sex offence:

1. London (cockney)

2. Liverpool

3. Standard Southern British English (SSBE), also referred to as RP

4. Newcastle

5. Bradford

6. Cardiff

7. Birmingham

8. Bristol

9. Belfast

10. Glasgow