Racial and Ethnic Perceptions of Injustice

• Author: Steve Wilson,Mario Davila,Deborah Hartley,Kevin Buckler
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016811409396
• Published date: 01 September 2011
• Date: 01 September 2011
• Subject Matter: Articles

Racial and Ethnic

Perceptions of Injustice:

Does Prior Personal and

Vicarious Incarceration

Experience Alter the

Racial/Ethnic Gap in

Perceptions of Injustice?

Kevin Buckler

1

, Steve Wilson

1

, Deborah Hartley

1

, and Mario Davila

1

Abstract

The study tests the explicit and implicit racial/ethnic divide, gradient, and justice system contact

propositions of comparative conflict theory and explores whether prior incarceration experience

(personal and vicarious) alters the observed relationship between race/ethnicity and perceptions

of injustice. The study uses data from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, the Washington

Post, and Harvard University 2006 survey concerning issues relating to African American males.

The study found support for the racial/ethnic divide, gradient, and justice system contact

hypotheses. The study also found support for the notion that prior incarceration experience

intensifies the relationship between race/ethnicity and perceptions of injustice. The gap between

African Americans and Whites in perceptions of injustice is more pronounced among persons

with prior incarceration experience. The gap in perception of injustice between Whites and

Hispanics was also stronger among those with prior incarceration experiences. The gap between

African Americans and Hispanics was not impacted by prior incarceration experience. Future

research should continue to explore the potential for prior incarceration experience to impact

the relationship between race/ethnicity and perceptions of injustice.

Keywords

sentencing, courts/law, critical criminology, crime/delinquency, theory, race and crime/justice, other

The concept of justice has been described as a universal and essential value among humans

(Eisenstein & Jacob, 1977; Jacob, 1971; Soloman & Murphy, 2000). Perceptions of injustice, when

present, can have deleterious effects on an individual’s psychological health (Elovainio, Kivimaki,

1

Department of Criminal Justice, University of Texas, Brownsville, TX, USA

Corresponding Author:

Kevin Buckler, Department of Criminal Justice, University of Texas, 80 Fort Brown, Brownsville, TX 78520, USA

Email: kevin.buckler@utb.edu

Criminal Justice Review

36(3) 269-290

ª2011 Georgia State University

Reprints and permission:

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DOI: 10.1177/0734016811409396

http://cjr.sagepub.com

Vahtera, Keltikangas-Jarvinen, & Virtanen, 2003; Francis & Barling, 2005; Judge & Colquitt, 2004;

Rousseau, Salek, Aube, & Morin, 2009; Tepper, 2000). Prior research suggests that perceptions of

injustice are alive and well among members of disadvantaged and marginalized groups in the gen-

eral population. There is a racial divide in perceptions of inequality and discrimination in the oper-

ations of a variety of important social institutions and in terms of solutions to address racial

disparities (Bogart & Hutchison, 1978; Dawson, 1994; Feagin & Sikes, 1994; Hochschild, 1996;

Jones & Rainey, 2006; Schuman, Steeh, Bob, & Krysan, 1997; Shedd & Hagan, 2006; Strolovitch,

1998). Perception of injustice among minority populations is perhaps most manifest when consid-

ering minority and majority views of the criminal justice system and how agents of the system inter-

act with citizens.

Within the context of criminal justice, the notion of ‘‘justice’’ has been conceptualized in vastly

different ways (see Engel, 2005; Hagan & Albonetti, 1982, for discussions related to conceptualizing

the term ‘‘justice’’). Engel (2005) identified three broad aspects of ‘‘justice’’: punishment, legiti-

macy, and fairness. Engel further noted that each of these three aspects is exemplified in Rawls’

(1971) broad conceptualization of social justice: ‘‘how major social institutions distribute funda-

mental rights and duties, and determine the division of advantages, economic opportunities and

social conditions’’ (p. 6). With regard to perceptions of criminal (in)justice, scholars have distin-

guished between two focal areas of concern among citizens: instrumental justice and normative

justice (Tyler, 1990, 2001; Tyler, Boeckmann, Smith, & Huo, 1997). Instrumental justice relates

to whether a citizen perceives a particular outcome as favorable or unfavorable and subjectively

value-laden, whereas the normative aspect of justice concerns whether particular outcomes are fair

in the sense that the outcome was achieved through application of fair procedures. With regard to

perception of criminal (in)justice, research suggests that citizens are more concerned with normative

elements of justice than they are with instrumental aspects (Tyler, 1990, 2001; Tyler & Folger,

1980). Fair treatment, relative to others, is foremost in the minds of citizens who assess the behavior

of the criminal justice system and its agents who engage in decision making.

Prior research has sought to understand the factors that account for variation in perceptions of

injustice. A substantial body of literature has linked race and ethnicity with perceptions of criminal

(in)justice (Albrecht & Green, 1977; Bayley & Mendelsohn, 1969; Bordua & Tifft, 1971; Buckler &

Unnever, 2008; Buckler, Unnever, & Cullen, 2008; Carter, 1983; Decker, 1981; Dunham &

Alpert, 1988; Furstenberg & Wellford, 1973; Gaines, 2007; Hagan & Albonetti, 1982; Hagan,

Shedd, & Payne, 2005; Huebner, Schafer, & Bynum, 2004; Jacob, 1971; Lasley, 1994;

MacDonald, Stokes, Ridgeway, & Riley, 2007; Rice & Piquero, 2005; Sun & Wu, 2006; Taylor,

Turner, Esbensen, & Winfree, 2001; Tuch & Weitzer, 1997; Webb & Marshall, 1995; Weitzer,

2000; Weitzer & Tuch, 1999; Weitzer, Tuch, & Skogan, 2008; Wortley, Hagan, & Macmillan,

1997). A growing body of literature also has found that contact with the criminal justice system,

especially negative contact, increases perception of injustice (Buckler & Unnever, 2008; Buckler

et al., 2008; Hagan et al., 2005; Scaglion & Condon, 1980; Wiley & Hudik, 1974; Wortley et al.,

1997).

Hagan et al. (2005) recently developed a theoretical perspective, known as comparative conflict

theory (CCT), which provides an explanation for variation between White, African American, and

Hispanics in terms of perceptions of normative injustice. The CCT argues that the relationship

between race/ethnicity and perceptions of injustice is best characterized in the context of a racial/

ethnic divide and gradient, whereby African Americans perceive the most injustice, followed by

Hispanics, and then Whites. Significantly, CCT also suggests that the racial/ethnic gaps in perceived

injustice are not static, but dynamic, in the sense that prior criminal justice contact can serve to alter

the gaps that exist between certain racial and ethnic dyads (African Americans and Hispanics)

because racial/ethnic groups are differentially sensitive to prior contact with the criminal justice sys-

tem. The current study: (a) tests the racial/ethnic divide, gradient, and justice system contact

270 Criminal Justice Review 36(3)