A woman walking her dog encounters a man. She has an instant, visceral reaction to him and screams. The next day, she sees his picture in the newspaper; he has been charged with rape.

This anecdote prompted three Cornell researchers to reopen a "long and sordid" history of research and debate about whether we can determine who is a criminal by looking at his face.

Their finding: We can.

"We can" is an overstatement.  The authors describe the effect as "small but reliable."

Somewhat surprisingly, men, on average, are better at spotting rapists than women.