Attitudes toward hate crime laws

Johnson, Stephen D.; Byers, Bryan

doi:10.1016/s0047-2352(03)00004-7

Cited by 31 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Cabeldue, Cramer, Kehn, Crosby, and Anastasi (in press) examined public perceptions of hate crime laws as part of the broader scope of public attitudes toward a policy issues such as hate crimes. These studies (Cabeldue et al, in press;Dunbar & Molina, 2004;Johnson & Byers, 2003;Steen & Cohen;2004) examined how participant attitudes (e.g., politics, prejudice) are correlated with hate crime-related beliefs. Factor analyses yielded results showing that all four subscale domains incorporated some aspect of beliefs about hate crime laws and punishment.…”

Section: Data On the Perceptions Of Hate Crime Lawsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Identity, Type of Victim, and Hate Crime‐Related Beliefs as Predictors of Views Concerning Hate Crime Penalty Enhancement Laws

Cramer

Laxton

Chandler

et al. 2017

Anal Soc Iss & Public Policy

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Little empirical work exists examining predictors of support or opposition of hate crime penalty enhancement laws despite such laws remaining a socially and politically contentious issue. Grounded in legal and philosophical arguments concerning hate crime laws, we tested political identity, victim minority status, and hate crime‐related beliefs as predictors of perceptions concerning penalty enhancement laws for bias‐motivated crime. Jury‐eligible Texas community members (n = 382) participating in a community survey of social and legal attitudes took part in the present study. Participants read a vignette of a hate‐motivated homicide that varied victim type (African American, gay, transgender) and answered questions regarding demographics, political identity, and hate crime penalty enhancement support. Qualitatively coded hate crime‐related beliefs yielded the following categories: legal arguments, moral statements, victim‐related beliefs, offender‐related beliefs, and an “other” category. Political identity, legal arguments, victim‐related and offender‐related beliefs all predicted views of penalty enhancement laws in logistic regression analyses. Exploratory mediation tests identified two pathways: (1) political conservatism–legal arguments–penalty enhancement opposition, and (2) political liberalism–offender beliefs–penalty enhancement support. Implications concerning social justice, public policy, trial consultation practice, and future research are discussed.

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Section: Data On the Perceptions Of Hate Crime Lawsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Identity, Type of Victim, and Hate Crime‐Related Beliefs as Predictors of Views Concerning Hate Crime Penalty Enhancement Laws

Cramer

Laxton

Chandler

et al. 2017

Anal Soc Iss & Public Policy

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“…Johnson and Byers (2003) found that the major factor determining acceptance or rejection of general hate crime laws was whether or not sexual orientation would be included as a protected bias. It was reported that those who wanted inclusion of protection for gay men and lesbian women would support such a law in their state, while those who did not want inclusion would oppose such a law.…”

Section: Perceptions Of Hate Crimesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Purpose Although many researchers have looked at attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women (Herek, 1989), the impact hate crimes have on their victims (Herek, 1994;Rivers & D'Augelli, 2001), and attitudes toward hate crime laws (Johnson & Byers, 2003;Miller, 2001), none have investigated the impact of labeling of the crime on juror verdicts and attributions of blame and responsibility in a bias-motivated crime committed against a gay man or lesbian. The goal of this study was to better understand how potential jurors view hate crime and how they attribute blame for the crime to the perpetrator, victim, and situation.…”

Section: Study Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Victim Blame in a Hate Crime Motivated by Sexual Orientation

Plumm

Terrance

Henderson

et al. 2010

Journal of Homosexuality

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A jury simulation paradigm was employed for two studies exploring levels of victim blame in a case of bias-motivated assault based on sexual orientation. In the first study, participants were grouped according to their score on the Index of Homophobia (IHP) scale as either reporting high or low support for gay and lesbian community members. The label of the crime (i.e., bias-motivated assault versus first-degree assault) as well as the gender of the victim were systematically varied. Results indicated that attributions of blame against the victim varied as a function of participants' attitudes toward minority sexual orientation. As extra-legal factors likely contribute to victim blame in these cases, the second study explored such factors as location and "provocation." Jurors in the second study read a transcript depicting an attack on a gay man by a man in either a local bar (i.e., not a gay bar) or a gay bar. Within location conditions, jurors were presented with either "provocation" by the victim (i.e., asking the perpetrator to dance and putting his arm around him) or alternatively no provocation was presented. Results revealed significant differences of victim blame depending on condition. Participants in both the local bar and provocation present conditions were more likely to blame the victim for the attack than those in the gay bar or provocation-absent conditions. Implications for hate crime law and attribution theory within the courtroom are discussed.

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“…Do these objections to enhanced penalties for hate crimes find support in the psychological literature? Although researchers have examined factors that predict whether particular individuals will be likely to oppose hate crime legislation (Dunbar & Molina, 2004;Johnson & Byers, 2003), researchers have failed to examine whether the objections have any empirical support. As several of the objections implicate intergroup perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors, the social psychological literature on intergroup behavior is a reasonable place to turn for research that might shed light on the reasonableness of these objections and provide suggested paradigms for needed research on these issues.…”

Section: Objections To Hate Crime Lawsmentioning

confidence: 99%