NCJ Number
169946
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 25 Issue: 6 Dated: (November/December 1997) Pages: 447-462
Date Published
1997
Length
16 pages
Annotation
Based on a stratified sample of 239 residents of Cincinnati, Ohio, this study explored whether African Americans and white Americans differ in their perceptions of racial injustice in the criminal justice system.
Abstract
The dependent variable, perceptions of racial injustice in the criminal justice system, was measured with a four-item scale. The items were phrased specifically to assess racial injustice across several situations: whether a police officer would be more likely to stop a black or white person while on patrol; to whom a police officer would be more likely to give a speeding ticket; who would be more likely to receive a jail sentence for stealing from a department store; and whom a jury would be more likely to sentence to death. In addition to including respondents' race, four sociodemographic variables were included: age, gender, income, and education. The findings show a difference in the extent to which the races believed that black citizens would be differentially stopped by the police given a speeding ticket, jailed, and sentenced to death. The effect of race remained strong even when controls were introduced for sociodemographic characteristics, experience with the criminal justice system, experience with crime, neighborhood disorder, and political and crime-related ideology. Perceptions of injustice, moreover, were strongest among the least affluent African Americans. The possibility that the racial divide in perceived criminal injustice both reflects and contributes to a larger racial chasm in how black and white citizens understand and experience their lives in American society is explored. 5 tables, 75 references, and an appended summary of measures