NCJ Number
203780
Journal
Social Forces Volume: 82 Issue: 2 Dated: December 2003 Pages: 757-781
Editor(s)
Richard L. Simpson,
Judith Blau
Date Published
December 2003
Length
25 pages
Annotation
The study examined, in the country of Israel whether the inclusion of details about offenders’ ethnicity in crime scenarios affected the public’s perception of the seriousness of the criminal offense.
Abstract
Since the influential research work of Sellin and Wolfgang in 1964, the systematic analysis of public perceptions of the seriousness of criminal offenses has been a major topic within social science research. In reviewing the literature, it was concluded that social stereotypes shape attitudes on issues related to crime and therefore they should also affect public perceptions of crime seriousness. Using a randomized experiment, this study surveyed a sample of 944 Israeli adult citizens to determine whether the offender’s ethnicity, Jewish or Arab (independent variables), systematically affected their views of the seriousness of various offenses (dependent variable). This research was based on a survey of various crime scenarios. Findings suggest that there is substantial empirical evidence for the existence of crime stereotypes, often influenced by offender’s ethnicity, among the public in Western countries, including Israel. These stereotypes tend to shape public attitudes toward crime issues and elicit harsher seriousness evaluations of acts committed by minority groups. The findings suggest that the activation of ethnic crime stereotypes, like other social stereotypes, is not automatic, but ethnically context-dependent. Due to study limitations, further research is suggested in focusing more on other independent variables, by other survey methods and in other contexts. References and appendix