Twenty-First Century Punitiveness: Social Sources of Punitive American Views Reconsidered

Brown, Elizabeth; Socia, Kelly M.

doi:10.1007/s10940-016-9319-4

Cited by 84 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…Consistent with a wealth of past research (e.g., Brown & Socia, 2017;Unnever et al, 2008), our analysis showed that racial resentment is a robust predictor of punitive attitudes. Even with a number of controls in the multivariate analyses, such animus not only increased support for capital punishment and harsher courts but also eliminated the effects of racial sympathy.…”

Section: Effects Of Racial Resentmentsupporting

confidence: 88%

Racial Sympathy and Support for Capital Punishment:A Case Study in Concept Transfer

et al. 2020

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Beliefs about race, especially racial resentment, are key predictors of public support for capital punishment and punitiveness generally. Drawing on a conceptual innovation by political scientist Jennifer Chudy, we explore the utility of transferring into criminology her construct of racial sympathy-or Whites' concern about Blacks' suffering. First, across three data sets, we replicate Chudy's finding that racial sympathy and resentment are empirically distinct constructs. Second, based on a national-level 2019 YouGov survey (n = 760 White respondents) and consistent with Chudy's thesis, racial sympathy is then shown to be significantly related to the race-specific view that capital punishment is discriminatory but not support for the death penalty or harsher courts. Racial sympathy also is positively associated with advocacy of rehabilitation as the main goal of prison. Notably, in all models, racial resentment has robust effects, increasing punitive sentiments. Taken together, the results suggest that racial sympathy is a concept that can enrich criminologists' study of how race shapes crime policy preferences in the United States and beyond.

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Section: Effects Of Racial Resentmentsupporting

confidence: 88%

Racial Sympathy and Support for Capital Punishment:A Case Study in Concept Transfer

et al. 2020

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“…Beyond death sentences, the very threat of the death penalty is often used in homicide cases to leverage defendants into accepting plea bargains of life without parole (LWOP; see Thaxton, ). Besides death‐penalty views, other deeply held biases can influence sentencing in capital cases, such as racial prejudice, perceptions of moral decline, and stereotypes about the poor (Brown & Socia, ). Uncovering underlying biases, as well as “pro or con” death‐penalty attitudes per se, should be the foremost goal of capital jury selection (Kovera, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Capital juror questionnaires in death‐penalty cases: A study of attitudes, denials, and deceptions

Rogers

Sharf

Myers

et al. 2020

Behavioral Sci & The Law

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The Sixth Amendment right to an “impartial jury” should guarantee fundamental fairness that in capital cases may literally be a matter of life and death. For ecological validity, the current study focuses on capital jury questionnaires (CJQs) employed in actual death‐penalty cases. Study I examined 248 undergraduates and their responses to death‐penalty relevant questions. As an MTurk investigation, Study II consisted of 259 community members potentially eligible for capital trial jury trials. Misrepresentations were operationalized as either denials (concealing their true views) or outright deceptions (dissembling the opposite viewpoint). Both studies found that CJQ items were very susceptible to both types of misrepresentation, irrespective of support‐life or support‐death views. Nearly 30% of undergraduates openly acknowledged that they would misrepresent close to half their CJQ responses. Overall, community members were much more willing to engage in denials and outright deceptions. The discussion focuses on how CJQs could be improved to promote candor about death‐penalty views.

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“…That research has found that race plays a large role in shaping attitudes toward policies like the death penalty (Bobo and Johnson, 2004; Peffley and Hurwtiz, 2010). Further, those studies have shown that the effect of race on punitiveness is largely explained by racial attitudes, especially views about the presence and importance of racial discrimination (modern racism, symbolic racism) (Brown and Socia, 2016; Unnever and Cullen, 2007; Unnever et al, 2008). Similarly, in our study, the relationship between race and endorsement of severity, urgency, propriety, and policy frames was largely indirect through beliefs about discrimination in the criminal justice system—or criminal injustice frames.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, a large body of research has explored explanations for racial differences in support for ostensibly race-neutral crime policies, such as the death penalty (Bobo and Johnson, 2004; Peffley and Hurwtiz, 2010). This research has consistently found that there is a large racial gap in punitiveness, which is explained primarily by differences between whites and minorities in their racial attitudes (Brown and Socia, 2016; Unnever and Cullen, 2007, 2010; Unnever et al, 2008).…”

Section: The Current Studymentioning

confidence: 96%

Race, Criminal Injustice Frames, and the Legitimation of Carceral Inequality as a Social Problem

Pickett

Ryon

2017

Du Bois Rev.

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Michelle Alexander argues that carceral inequality and mass incarceration together have created a “new racial caste system” in America (2010, p. 11). She contends that only a race-conscioussocial movement that engages both legal actors and the public can dismantle this system of racial control. Unfortunately, very little research has examined views about carceral inequality. Little is known about the attitudes of juvenile and criminal justice workers. We build on and integrate three literatures—scholarship on the framing perspective, comparative conflict theory, and group position theory and racial ideology—to develop a theoretical model of attitudes toward carceral inequality. We hypothesize that race influences the resonance of attributional frames, especially criminal injustice frames, but endorsement of these frames represents the primary factor shaping judgments about whether carceral inequality is a social problem (propriety, urgency, severity and policy frames). For several decades, framing efforts have been underway aimed at mobilizing JCJW to reduce racial disparities in the juvenile justice system. And most offenders first have contact with the state as juveniles. Accordingly, to test our theory, we analyze data on views about carceral inequality in the juvenile justice system—or disproportionate minority contact—among a nationwide sample of justice workers (N = 543). The findings show that race is strongly associated with attributional frames about carceral inequality, and is indirectly related, through attributional frames, to endorsement of propriety, urgency, severity, and policy frames about carceral inequality.

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Twenty-First Century Punitiveness: Social Sources of Punitive American Views Reconsidered

Cited by 84 publications

References 50 publications

Racial Sympathy and Support for Capital Punishment:A Case Study in Concept Transfer

Racial Sympathy and Support for Capital Punishment:A Case Study in Concept Transfer

Capital juror questionnaires in death‐penalty cases: A study of attitudes, denials, and deceptions

Race, Criminal Injustice Frames, and the Legitimation of Carceral Inequality as a Social Problem

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