Racial Resentment, Empathy, and Support for Release during COVID-19: Results from a Survey Experiment

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has presented the American criminal justice system with unprecedented challenges, including protecting the safety of incarcerated men and women. Given the ill-suited structure of correctional facilities to facilitate health and safety guidelines, one solution is decarceration. Yet decarceration has faced political and public backlash. As no evidence currently exists on how the public views this emergency solution, the authors examined the correlates of support for decarceration by conducting a survey experiment in which respondents were randomly presented with information on the dangers of COVID-19 in prisons and jails. Respondents’ attitudes toward releasing various subgroups of the incarcerated population were then measured. The findings indicate that learning about the health risks of COVID-19 in correctional facilities had no discernable effect on support for decarceration for any subgroup. Racial resentment consistently predicted opposition to release for all groups, although its effect largely operated through empathetic identification with those who commit crimes.

The American racial divide in fear of the police

“…A large body of evidence also shows that altruistic fear is distinct from personal fear, is often more common and more intense, and is at least as consequential (Drakulich, 2015; Heber, 2009; Warr & Ellions, 2000). Altruistic fear of COVID‐19 (of others getting sick), for example, is associated with support for releasing inmates during the pandemic (Ivanov et al., 2021), altruistic fear of crime with support for harsh sanctions (Budd et al., 2017), and altruistic fear for school children and personnel with support for gun control and school safety programs (Burton et al., 2021). It is probable, then, that both personal and altruistic fear of the police will have important influences on attitudes toward policing policies.…”

“…In our study, we develop separate measures of personal and altruistic fear of the police, following best practices for measuring fear—asking specifically about emotions, avoiding hypothetical phrasing, and using multiple items that cover different dimensions of the respective concepts (Ferraro, 1995). The measures we use are nearly identical to those used in past studies to measure personal and altruistic fear in other contexts (e.g., Burton et al., 2021; Graham, Haner, et al., 2020; Ivanov et al., 2021; Pickett, Roche, et al., 2018).…”

Is compassion the flip side of punitiveness? Incorporating COVID-19 crisis in experimental vignettes to examine support for visitation and vaccination in prison

“…In a small convenience sample (n = 124), Eno Louden and colleagues (2021) similarly showed average support higher for non-release conditions (making testing available [4.1 out of 1-5 scale], eliminating co-pays [4.0], and making hand sanitizer [3.9] and soap [3.9] available) than release ones (those with less than a year to serve [3.6], low risk [3.5], elderly [3.4], or had chronic health conditions [3.3]). When only release options were presented, respondents in a national online convenience sample (n = 650) preferred to release individuals with nonviolent charges (elderly/jail 64%; elderly/prison 61%; jail/age not specified 57%) than those with violent offenses (elderly/prison 16%; jail/age not specified 14%) (Ivanov et al, 2021). This suggests that perceived public safety risk may be more important for endorsing release than COVID-19 risk (e.g., elderly, in poor health).…”

“…Factors predicting support for compassionate COVID-19 policies included racial attitudes (Denney & Garibaldo Valdez, 2021;Ivanov et al, 2021;Miranda et al, 2021), stigma (Eno Louden et al, 2021 and empathy (Ivanov et al) toward prisoners, "hierarchy enhancing ideologies" such as meritocracy and anti-egalitarianism (Miranda et al, 2021), and perceptions of risk,fear) (Denney & Garibaldo Valdez, 2021;Eno Louden et al, 2021;Ivanov et al, 2021). Experimental conditions presenting respondents with additional information about current events show mixed results.…”

“…org/ 2020/ 03/ 17/ track ing-priso ns-respo nse-to-coron avirus) among other stories. months of the pandemic, many months before COVID-19 vaccines became available (Denney & Garibaldo Valdez, 2021;Eno Louden et al, 2021;Ivanov et al, 2021;Miranda et al, 2021). 2 Across the studies, support for release options was moderate at best.…”