Racial Attributions in the Justice System and Support for Punitive Crime Policies

• Author: Jon Hurwitz,Jeffery Mondak,Mark Peffley
• Published date: 01 November 2017
• Date: 01 November 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X17692326
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X17692326

American Politics Research

2017, Vol. 45(6) 1032 –1058

© The Author(s) 2017

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DOI: 10.1177/1532673X17692326

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Article

Racial Attributions in

the Justice System and

Support for Punitive

Crime Policies

Mark Peffley1, Jon Hurwitz2,

and Jeffery Mondak3

Abstract

How do members of racial groups explain the large disparity in the way

Blacks and Whites are treated by the criminal justice system in the United

States? And how do such explanations (attributions) influence support for

punitive crime control policies in America, as well as arguments against such

policies? Our study of the structure, sources, and consequences of racial

attributions in the justice system, using original survey data in Washington

state, contributes to the literature in several ways. First, unlike traditional

measures of racial prejudice—that is, racial resentment and stereotypes—

our measure of racial attributions distinguishes cleanly between dispositional

explanations (e.g., Blacks’ aggressive nature) and discrimination. Second, we

examine the attributions of three pivotal groups with different experiences

with legal authorities: Latinos, Blacks, and Whites. Third, an issue framing

experiment demonstrates the power of both attributions for shaping support

for the death penalty and arguments against the policy based on racial justice.

Keywords

death penalty, racial attitudes, racial attributions, punitive attitudes, Whites,

Blacks, Latinos

1University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA

2University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

3University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, IL, USA

Corresponding Author:

Mark Peffley, University of Kentucky, 1653 POT, Lexington, KY 40506-0027, USA.

Email: mpeffl@uky.edu

692326APRXXX10.1177/1532673X17692326American Politics ResearchPefey et al.

research-article2017

Peffley et al. 1033

Introduction

Michael Tonry (2011) begins Punishing Race, with a sweeping—and wholly

accurate—assessment of what makes

American crime control policies stand out: the world’s highest imprisonment

rate, the Western world’s only use of capital punishment, the Western world’s

most severe punishments short of death, and the devastating effects of those

policies on black Americans. Black men for a quarter century have been five to

seven times more likely than white men to be in prison, are much more likely

to receive decades-long sentences or life without the possibility of parole, and

are much more likely to be on death row. (p. 1)

Tonry, along with a distinguished group of social scientists (e.g., Bucerius

& Tonry, 2014), points out that while the huge racial disparities in punish-

ment result partly from racial differences in offending, they also result from

a pattern of discriminatory treatment found, in some measure, in almost every

nook and cranny of the criminal justice system (see also Ghandnoosh, 2014).

Unsurprisingly, given such stark differences between the races in their expe-

riences with the justice system, research finds that Blacks and Whites inhabit

“separate realities” in the way they evaluate the fundamental fairness of the

justice system in America (e.g., Bobo & Johnson, 2004; Peffley & Hurwitz,

2010). Most Blacks view the system as categorically unfair and discriminatory,

while most Whites view the system as fair and “color blind.” In fact, the racial

divide in evaluations of the fairness of the justice system is as large today as it

was in the early 1990s, with more than two thirds of African Americans but

only a quarter to one third of Whites agreeing that the “American justice system

is biased against Black people.” Even after the rash of highly publicized police

shootings of unarmed African Americans since the killing of Trayvon Martin in

2012, Michael Brown in 2014, and countless others, a majority of Whites still

denies that racial bias exists in the justice system.1

In light of these and similar findings, our study takes aim at two limita-

tions in a large literature that has produced important substantive and theo-

retical insights. One is fairly obvious, the other less so. First, with few

exceptions, extant research examines a narrow spectrum of public opinion on

criminal justice issues because the focus is largely on the attitudes of Whites

and sometimes Blacks, but with very little attention to Latinos (cf. Weitzer &

Tuch, 2006). Today, however, not only is Whites’ majority status diminish-

ing, but Blacks are no longer the largest minority group, due largely to the

increasing Latino population. As we argue below, the numerous negative

encounters between Latinos and legal authorities make it essential to gauge

Latinos’ perceptions of discrimination in the justice system, as well as their