Interrogating Race, Crime, and Justice in a Time of Unease and Racial Tension

Peterson, Ruth D.

doi:10.1111/1745-9125.12140

Cited by 20 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 102 publications

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“…Tough‐on‐crime criminal justice policies that emerged in recent decades occurred alongside of, and arguably have contributed to, racial disparities in the arrest, conviction, and sentencing of Blacks (Clear and Frost, ; Kutateladze et al., ; Mears and Cochran, ; Petersilia, ; Sampson and Lauritsen, ; Ulmer and Laskorunsky, ). The racialization of crime—that is, the equating of Blacks with criminality and, conversely, of criminality with Blacks—has been implicated in numerous accounts of such disparities (Baumer, ; Garland, , ; Peterson, ; Tonry, ; Travis, ; Unnever and Gabbidon, ). Many of these accounts draw on racial threat theory (Blalock, ; Liska, ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Retracted: Lynchings, Racial Threat, and Whites’ Punitive Views Toward Blacks

et al. 2018

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Disparities in historical and contemporary punishment of Blacks have been well documented. Racial threat has been proffered as a theoretical explanation for this phenomenon. In an effort to understand the factors that influence punishment and racial divides in America, we draw on racial threat theory and prior scholarship to test three hypotheses. First, Black punitive sentiment among Whites will be greater among those who reside in areas where lynching was more common. Second, heightened Black punitive sentiment among Whites in areas with more pronounced legacies of lynching will be partially mediated by Whites’ perceptions of Blacks’ criminality and of Black‐on‐White violence in these areas. Third, the impact of lynching on Black punitive sentiment will be amplified by Whites’ perceptions of Blacks as criminals and as threatening more generally. We find partial support for these hypotheses. The results indicate that lynchings are associated with punitive sentiment toward Black offenders, and these relationships are partially mediated by perceptions of Blacks as criminals and as threats to Whites. In addition, the effects of lynchings on Black punitiveness are amplified among White respondents who view Blacks as a threat to Whites. These results highlight the salience of historical context for understanding contemporary views about punishment.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Racial divides are prevalent in contemporary America (McPherson, Smith‐Lovin, and Cook, ; Peterson, ). Nevertheless, they are not new; indeed, they have existed for many centuries and have been well documented (Alexander, ; Blauner, ; Davis, ; Feagin, ; Quillian, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retracted: Lynchings, Racial Threat, and Whites’ Punitive Views Toward Blacks

et al. 2018

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“…Such scholarly works reveal a painful truth: the criminal justice system is structured around race and is racialized in its routine operation. As Ruth Peterson (2017) said in her recent Presidential Address to the American Society of Criminology: “Race and ethnic disparities in crime and justice are long standing” (p. 253).…”

Section: The Race Gap Procedural Justice and Beyondmentioning

confidence: 99%

Race, Grievance Systems, and Prisoners’ Perceptions of Justice in Three California Prisons

Calavita

Jenness

2018

Du Bois Rev.

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A large body of social science consistently documents race differences in the U.S. criminal justice system and in related perceptions of justice. It is now beyond dispute that the criminal justice system is racialized in a plethora of ways that have consequences for how people perceive justice. Another vast body of literature documents the importance of perceptions of procedural justice in people’s satisfaction with dispute management and outcomes. Informed by these two well-established literatures, we draw on original quantitative and qualitative data, including a random sample of interviews with 120 men in three California prisons, to present an empirical analysis of prisoners’ experiences with the prisoner grievance system, their level of satisfaction with the process and outcomes of that system, and their perceptions of fairness. We find an absence of race effects regarding how fairly they say they have been treated in the past by the criminal justice system and in how they assess justice in the prisoner grievance system in particular. Specifically, we find that: 1) male prisoners’ perceptions of whether the overall criminal justice system has been fair to them in the past does not vary by race in statistically significant ways; and 2) the dominance of substantive grievance outcomes over procedural elements in prisoners’ satisfaction holds regardless of racial self-identification. We explain these findings by arguing that prison may perversely level the attitudinal gap among those who are subject to this profound experience of state power.

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“…Racial tensions in America have persisted since the country's founding (Alexander ; Bell ; McPherson et al ; Peffley and Hurwitz ; Peterson ; Unnever ). Although many such tensions can be identified, the “lynching era” (Tolnay and Beck : 17)—which spanned a roughly 50‐year period from around 1880 (the end of Reconstruction) to the 1930s—stands out and has been the subject of an emerging body of scholarship that seeks to document and understand the legacy of lynchings in contemporary America.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Retracted: A Legacy of Lynchings: Perceived Black Criminal Threat Among Whites

Mears¹,

Stewart²,

Warren³

et al. 2019

Law Soc Rev

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This article examines the legacy of lynchings on contemporary whites' views of blacks as criminal threats. To this end, it draws on prior literature on racial animus to demonstrate the sustained influence of lynching on contemporary America. We hypothesize that one long‐standing legacy of lynchings is its influence in shaping views about blacks as criminals and, in particular, as a group that poses a criminal threat to whites. In addition, we hypothesize that this effect will be greater among whites who live in areas in America where socioeconomic disadvantage and political conservatism are greater. Results of multilevel analyses of lynching and survey data on whites' views toward blacks support the hypotheses. In turn, they underscore the salience of understanding historical forces, including the legacy of lynchings that influence contemporary views of blacks, criminals, and punishment policies.

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Interrogating Race, Crime, and Justice in a Time of Unease and Racial Tension

Cited by 20 publications

References 102 publications

Retracted: Lynchings, Racial Threat, and Whites’ Punitive Views Toward Blacks

Retracted: Lynchings, Racial Threat, and Whites’ Punitive Views Toward Blacks

Race, Grievance Systems, and Prisoners’ Perceptions of Justice in Three California Prisons

Retracted: A Legacy of Lynchings: Perceived Black Criminal Threat Among Whites

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