Follow the money: Racial crime stereotypes and willingness to fund crime control policies.

Abstract

A general shift in U.S. efforts to reduce crime via prevention and rehabilitation juxtaposed with the continued implementation of punitive policies, many of which disproportionately impact Black communities, raises questions about mechanisms underlying crime policy preferences. One concern is that the public is more willing to invest in policing and corrections when those practices are thought to primarily impact people of color. In a set of studies, the current research assesses how people allocate money across a variety of crime policies and evaluates how those decisions are influenced by perceptions of racial disparities in the U.S. prison population. The two studies also explore how support for those budgetary decisions is influenced by concerns about crime. Findings indicate that presenting participants with information about racial disparities in the prison population does not affect policy support, but that attitudes about race still play a role in crime control policy preferences. Findings from Study 1 reveal that participants who believe violent crime is more of a "Black" phenomenon typically invest more into carceral interventions and less into therapeutic interventions. However, this relationship is contingent on the policy options offered (Study 2). Implications for policy debates and future research directions are discussed.

Flattening the curve in jails and prisons: Factors underlying support for COVID-19 mitigation policies.

“…Although pandemics of the scope of COVID-19 will hopefully continue to be a once-in-a-lifetime event, other crises (e.g., natural disasters) occur with some regularity and may affect attitudes toward criminal justice policy (see Thomas, 2007). Further, although the factors we examined (e.g., fear of crime, conservatism, belief in a just world) have been compared to each other in past research (Dunbar, 2020; Gerber & Jackson, 2016; R. D. Lee & Rasinski, 2006; Silver & Silver, 2017), we do not know of any research comparing attitudes toward offenders to these other factors.…”

Ambient lighting, use of outdoor spaces and perceptions of public safety: evidence from a survey experiment

“…Likewise, survey experiments are particularly useful when key outcomes are attitudinal or are poorly measured using administrative data. Given their usefulness in many different contexts, survey experiments have a rich tradition in experimental economics (Chaudhuri 2011 ; Cruces et al 2013 ; Kuziemko et al 2015 ) in public opinion research in political science (Harbridge and Malhotra 2011 ; Samuels and Zucco Jr 2014 ) and have a limited but growing presence in experimental criminology (Herzog 2003 ; Groff et al 2005 ; Berryessa et al 2016 ; Buckley et al 2016 ; Liao et al 2016 ; Berryessa 2017 2018 ; Dunbar and Kubrin 2018 ; Headley et al 2020 ; Block et al 2020 ; Dunbar 2020 ; Kaplan et al 2020 ; Shi 2020 ).…”

“… 15 In a few cases, a more specific policy is referenced—see Cohen et al ( 2006 ), Nagin et al ( 2006 ) and Dunbar ( 2020 ). The programs used in these studies are often increasing the size of the police force, youth prevention programs, or building prisons.…”

“…One implication of this finding is that lighting enhances safety primarily by giving a potential victim the ability to respond effectively to dangerous events rather than by allowing victims to more effectively avert risks that lie ahead. A second implication of this finding is that potential victims value visibility over concealment.15 In a few cases, a more specific policy is referenced-seeCohen et al (2006),Nagin et al (2006) andDunbar (2020). The programs used in these studies are often increasing the size of the police force, youth prevention programs, or building prisons.…”

Time for Time: Uncovering Case Processing Duration as a Source of Punitiveness

“…Researchers point out that modern lifestyles in industrialized countries (Brown, 2014; Quinn, 2009), the professionalization and formalization of adjudication procedures (McConville et al, 2005), and tough-on-crime policies have effected an exponential increase in cases flowing through the criminal justice funnel (Martin, 1990; Wallace, 1994). While funding for law enforcement agencies has expanded (Dunbar, 2020; Kraska & Kappeler, 1997), along with the development of new technologies to combat crime, parallel innovations in the field of prosecution are nearly nonexistent. In fact, many prosecutors still rely on paper and pen rather than electronic management systems to maintain their case files, and rarely do they examine trends across cases in their decision making (Olsen et al, 2018).…”