NCJ Number
131973
Journal
Social Psychology Quarterly Volume: 54 Issue: 1 Dated: (1991) Pages: 67-75
Date Published
1991
Length
9 pages
Annotation
A sample of 504 white and 136 black respondents in Detroit was used to test the hypothesis that blacks and whites have fundamentally different ways of conceptualizing the issue of capital punishment.
Abstract
The researcher theorized that support for capital punishment among whites would be predicated by their belief that criminal behavior is attributable to characteristics of the criminal or to the environment. Black support for the death penalty was thought to be based on perceptions of sentencing inequality and by a lack of trust in representatives of the criminal justice system. The findings indicate that there is substantial difference in the criteria used by whites and blacks in formulating their attitudes. The evidence favors the responsibility attribution model for whites; support for capital punishment among blacks relates primarily to their degree of trust in the police, but is not related to their perception of sentencing disparity. 2 tables, 1 appendix, and 41 references (Author abstract modified)