A TASTE FOR PUNISHMENT: Black and White Americans' Views on the Death Penalty and the War on Drugs

Abstract

It is commonly accepted that Black and White Americans hold divergent views about the criminal justice system. Furthermore, many accept the view that U.S. public opinion is unflinchingly punitive where issues of criminal justice policy are concerned, with this punitiveness among White Americans deriving to a significant degree from anti-Black prejudice. Using a series of survey-based experiments and large, nationally representative samples of White and African American respondents, we subject the questions of Black-White polarization, unyielding punitiveness, and the influence of racial prejudice to close scrutiny. Our results, first, confirm large Black-White differences in opinion with Blacks consistently less punitive than Whites. These differences are substantially a result of beliefs about the extent of racial bias in the criminal justice system. Second, the framing experiments suggest that responses to the death penalty are very different than responses to drug-related crimes like crack or powder cocaine use, with the former exhibiting far less malleability than the latter. Third, racial prejudice is a consistently large influence on White public opinion and a weaker, but sometimes important influence among Blacks as well. Implications for discourse on race and crime are also discussed.

Perceptions of Criminal Injustice, Symbolic Racism, and Racial Politics

“…Research has established that a soaring number of African Americans are coming into contact with the criminal justice system and viewing it as unjust. In contrast, white Americans are less likely to come before the legal system and more likely to view it as fair (e.g., Bobo and Johnson 2004;Brooks and Jeon-Slaughter 2001;Hagan and Albonetti 1982). The former undermines legitimacy, while the latter reaffirms it.…”

Procedural Justice and Order Maintenance Policing: A Study of Inner‐City Young Men’s Perceptions of Police Legitimacy

“…The desire for police protection and effective law enforcement transcends racial and economic lines, and even groups who have historically suffered injustices at the hands of police want something done about local crime and disorder (Brooks, 2000; see also Bobo & Johnson, 2004). The concern, though, is not what order maintenance looks like in theory but, rather, how it plays out in practice.…”

The Determinants of Executions since 1951: How Politics, Protests, Public Opinion, and Social Divisions Shape Capital Punishment

“…Yet inequality leads to both greater public support and increased executions. This contrast is plausible as nonelites whose views have far greater statistical weight in the polls are more likely than elites to live where the risk of street crime is greater and, compared to educated elites, nonelites are less sympathetic to the plight of minorities (Turner 1969;Bobo and Johnson 2004). An expectation that the educated judges who rule on appeals are threatened by larger minority populations therefore is not as plausible as an expectation that nonelite anxieties and resentments will be triggered by expansions in minority presence.…”

“…And: Executions should increase after expansions in nonwhite populations . Minority threat ought to have greater effects on less affluent and the less educated (Turner 1969;Edsall and Edsall 1991;Bobo and Johnson 2004) who are more likely to support capital punishment and whose opinions have a greater influence on the polls than elites. Yet the most important decisions about executions are made by well-educated judges who are more insulated from minority threat, so this racial menace ought to provide a stronger explanation for public support for this penalty.…”

“…Especially if we find evidence for the last hypothesis, it is likely that: As a result of their effects on elite opinion, civil rights protests should reduce executions . These protests increased sharply after the early 1960s when elites became more sympathetic to this movement's goals (Turner 1969;Edsall and Edsall 1991;Bobo and Johnson 2004). The association between such protests and executions thus ought to increase after the early 1960s.…”