Retracted: A Legacy of Lynchings: Perceived Black Criminal Threat Among Whites

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12396
• Date: 01 June 2019
• Published date: 01 June 2019

A Legacy of Lynchings: Perceived Black Criminal

Threat Among Whites

Daniel P. Mears Eric A. Stewart

Patricia Y. Warren Miltonette O. Craig

Ashley N. Arnio

This article examines the legacy of lynchings on contemporary whites’ views

of blacks as criminal threats. To this end, it draws on prior literature on

racial animus to demonstrate the sustained influence of lynching on contem-

porary America. We hypothesize that one long-standing legacy of lynchings

is its influence in shaping views about blacks as criminals and, in particular,

as a group that poses a criminal threat to whites. In addition, we hypothesize

that this effect will be greater among whites who live in areas in America

where socioeconomic disadvantage and political conservatism are greater.

Results of multilevel analyses of lynching and survey data on whites’ views

toward blacks support the hypotheses. In turn, they underscore the salience

of understanding historical forces, including the legacy of lynchings that

influence contemporary views of blacks, criminals, and punishment policies.

Introduction

Racial tensions in America have persisted since the country’s

founding (Alexander 2012; Bell 2002; McPherson et al. 2001; Peff-

ley and Hurwitz 2010; Peterson 2017; Unnever 2014). Although

many such tensions can be identified, the “lynching era” (Tolnay

and Beck 1995: 17)—which spanned a roughly 50-year period

from around 1880 (the end of Reconstruction) to the 1930s—

stands out and has been the subject of an emerging body of

scholarship that seeks to document and understand the legacy of

lynchings in contemporary America.

Research on lynchings has emphasized the salience of lynch-

ings for exemplifying and supporting a culture of racial animus

The authors thank Stewart Tolnay, E. M. Beck, and Amy Bailey for sharing updated

data on southern lynchings. The authors also thank the editors and anonymous reviewers

for thoughtful guidance in improving the paper.

Following the initial online publication on January 25, 2019, the authors identified a

coding error. The authors have corrected the error and updated all of the tables and fig-

ures, as well as the accompanying discussion in the data and methods section, findings

section, and associated footnotes. The substantive results, findings, and conclusion

remain the same.

Please direct all correspondence to Daniel P.Mears, Florida State University, College

of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 112 South Copeland Street, Eppes Hall, Tallahas-

see, FL 32306-1273;e-mail: dmears@fsu.edu.

Law & Society Review, Volume 53, Number 2 (2019): 487–517

©2019 Law and Society Association. All rights reserved.

487

Retracted

and hostility toward blacks that exerts a persisting influence on

race relations in contemporary America (DeFina and Hannon

2011; Durso and Jacobs 2013; Jacobs et al. 2005, 2012; King et al.

2009; Messner et al. 2005; Porter 2011; Porter et al. 2014;

Sma

ˆngs 2016; Stewart et al. 2018). Many studies in this tradition

highlight the salience of racial threat for explaining how the racial

animus exemplified by lynchings contributes to modern-day

whites’ views about and reactions to blacks. In so doing, they par-

allel the research that employs racial threat theory to understand

racial disparities in crime policy, law enforcement, punishment,

mass incarceration, and Americans’ views about blacks and crime

(see, e.g., Chiricos et al. 2004; Goidel et al. 2011; Smith and

Holmes 2003; Stults and Baumer 2007; Tonry 2012; Ulmer and

Laskorunsky 2016; Wang and Mears 2010).

This paper seeks to contribute to scholarship aimed at under-

standing the historical legacy of lynchings and contemporary

racialized views of crime. To this end, it examines whether lynch-

ings influence modern-day views that whites hold of blacks both

as criminals and as criminal threats to whites. The touchstone for

this theoretical argument stems from literature on the role of

lynchings in expressing and supporting a deep-rooted cultural

view of blacks that persists in contemporary society and continues

to shape how whites perceive blacks. Drawing on this work and

on racial threat theory, we hypothesize that whites who reside in

areas where lynchings occurred will be more likely to perceive

blacks as criminals and, more specifically, as criminal threats to

whites. We draw, too, on scholarship that highlights the salience

of social class and political ideology to hypothesize that residency

in areas of socioeconomic disadvantage and political conservatism

will amplify these effects. In what follows, we discuss prior theory

and research that provide the context for these hypotheses. We

then discuss the data and methods used to test them, the findings,

and their implications for scholarship.

Background

The Legacy of Lynchings in Contemporary America

The Civil War marked a turning point in the history of the

United States, one that drew attention to changing status of blacks.

Passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery,

raised questions about whites’ position in society (Acharya et al.

2016; Alexander 2012; Davis 2006; Feagin 2013). In response, dur-

ing the post-War upheaval, whites’ animosity toward blacks esca-

lated (Brundage 1993; Tolnay and Beck 1995). Lynchings—which

peaked during the 1880s and 1890s and then persisted, albeit at

488 Perceived Black Criminal Threat Among Whites

Retracted