Racial prejudice, perceived injustice, and the Black-White gap in punitive attitudes

Predicting Punitive Attitudes: Racial-Animus towards New Immigrant and Aboriginal Minority Groups as a Mediating Agent upon Public Crime Concerns

“…In the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom (UK) and Australia, for example, different survey studies indicate that approximately two thirds of respondents expressed the desire for harsher sentences for offenders (Mackenzie et al, 2012;Roberts & Indermaur, 2009;Spiranovic, Roberts, & Indermaur, 2009). The public demand for harsher sentencing outcomes, however, has been costly with an unsustainable explosion in the prison population in many Western countries including Australia (Cunneen et al, 2013;Johnson, 2008;Jones & Newburn, 2005). In order to ameliorate this global trend in industrialised countries, many sociologists and criminologists have sought to understand what factors predict the public's demand for harsher sentencing policies and outcomes (Durkheim, 1984).…”

Racial Discrimination, Fear of Crime, and Variability in Blacks’ Preferences for Punitive and Preventative Anti-crime Policies

“…For instance, blacks are more likely to question the legitimacy of the criminal justice system and hold less punitive attitudes relative to whites (Bobo and Johnson 2004;Peffley and Hurwitz 2010;Unnever and Cullen 2007). Blacks are also more likely than whites to anchor their opinions toward criminal justice policies in their beliefs about the unfairness of the criminal justice system (Johnson 2007;Peffley and Hurwitz 2010) and crime conditions (Bobo and Johnson 2004;Johnson 2007Johnson , 2008. They are also less likely than whites to rely on racial stereotypes or dispositional attributions when forming their opinions toward criminal justice policies (Bobo and Johnson 2004;Peffley and Hurwitz 2010).…”

The Value of Quantitative Analysis for a Critical Understanding of Crime and Society

“…Using both national and regional data, this work shows that racial prejudice among whites is associated net of other factors with greater support for harsher sentencing of convicted defendants, for the death penalty, for the unjustified use of violent force by police against suspects, and for increases in government spending to fight crime (Aguirre and Baker 1993;Cohn 1994, 1998;Baumer et al 2003;Chiricos et al 2004;Cohn et al 1991;Jacobs and Carmichael 2002;Johnson 2001Johnson , 2008Soss et al 2003;Unnever and Cullen 2007). As one study of death penalty opinion concluded, White support for the death penalty in the United States has strong ties to anti-black prejudice.…”

“…Critical criminology has generally neglected the topic of public opinion on the criminal justice system, but a natural corollary of the third proposition follows from Blalock's (1967) ''racial threat'' hypothesis linking racial prejudice to fear by whites that people of color threaten their power and privilege. Extending this view to whites' views about the criminal justice system yields the hypothesis that racial prejudice among whites should be associated with greater support for a stronger and more punitive justice system (Johnson 2008).…”

“…In general, African Americans are much more likely than whites to hold negative views about criminal justice. For example, they have much less confidence in the police and are much more likely to perceive that the criminal justice system is unjust (Hagan et al 2005;Henderson et al 1997;Johnson 2008;Weitzer and Tuch 2006).…”