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January 3, 2022

"Racial Attitudes and Criminal Justice Policy"

The title of this post is the title of this lengthy new paper soon to be published in the journal Crime and Justice.  The article is authored by Francis Cullen, Leah Butler and Amanda Graham, and here is its abstract:

Empirical research on public policy preferences must attend to Whites’ animus toward Blacks.  For a quarter-century, studies have consistently found that Kinder and Sanders’s four-item measure of “racial resentment” is a robust predictor of almost every social and criminal justice policy opinion.  Racial animus increases Whites’ opposition to social welfare policies that benefit Blacks and their support for punitive policies that disadvantage this “out-group.”  Any public opinion study that fails to include racial resentment risks omitted variable bias.  Despite the continuing salience of out-group animus, recent scholarship, especially in political science, has highlighted other racial attitudes that can influence public policy preferences.  Two developments are of particular importance.  First, Chudy showed the progressive impact of racial sympathy, a positive out-group attitude in which Whites are distressed by incidents of Blacks’ suffering (such as the killing of George Floyd).  Second, Jardina and others documented that Whites’ in-group racial attitudes, such as White identity/consciousness or white nationalism, have political consequences, reinforcing the effects of racial resentment.  As the United States becomes a majority-minority nation, diverse in-group and out-group racial attitudes are likely to play a central role in policies — including within criminal justice — that the public endorses.

January 3, 2022 at 07:05 PM | Permalink

Comments

More drivel.

Posted by: Federalist | Jan 3, 2022 8:19:58 PM

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.local10.com/news/local/2021/12/12/juror-from-dayonte-reiles-murder-trial-discusses-their-inability-to-reach-unanimous-verdict/%3foutputType=amp

Race-based sympathy for a murderer. Pretty sickening

Posted by: Federalist | Jan 4, 2022 4:35:15 PM

This press article, Federalist, make no mention of "Race-based sympathy for a murderer." Is there some other press account of this deadlocked jury that is the basis for your concern?

Posted by: Doug B. | Jan 4, 2022 6:05:12 PM

https://www.google.com/amp/s/wsvn.com/news/local/broward/foreperson-3-jurors-unwilling-to-convict-resiles-based-on-race-leading-to-mistrial/amp/

Posted by: Federalist | Jan 4, 2022 10:54:50 PM

This new article indicates, if I understand the details right, that the jury had collectively decided to convict of manslaughter, but then the jury foreperson changed her mind in open court after that agreement was reached. She thereafter claimed that race-based concerns accounted for the votes of those who did not want to vote for murder, but the first article you linked suggests that other jurors may not have made the account of the reasons for the murder/manslaughter disagreement.

Posted by: Doug B. | Jan 5, 2022 10:59:10 AM

Yep Doug, nothing to see here. This was obviously not a manslaughter case. And race-based lenience—nothing yo see here. And after all the invocations of “all-white jury.”

Speaking of privilege, it would be interesting to see your take on the kid gloves treatment of the Hennepin County Sheriff and his DUI charge. Funny, if not so tragic.

Posted by: Federalist | Jan 5, 2022 4:48:02 PM

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