J. Hurwitz et M. Peffley, PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS OF RACE AND CRIME - THE ROLE OF RACIAL STEREOTYPES, American journal of political science, 41(2), 1997, pp. 375-401
Theory: Social psychological theories of social stereotyping are used
to generate a series of predictions about the conditions under which w
hites' stereotypes of African-Americans are likely to bias their evalu
ations of blacks in the context of crime. Hypotheses: Stereotypes of A
frican-Americans should influence attitudes on crime policy primarily
when criminals are black, crimes are violent, policies are punitive, a
nd no individuating information seriously undercuts the stereotype. Me
thods: Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) procedures are
used to administer a series of survey experiments where the race and o
ther characteristics of the target (e.g., criminal suspects, furlough
programs, etc.) are manipulated in interviews with Lexington, Kentucky
residents in a 1994 probability survey. Results: Consistent with our
expectations, we find a strong relationship between whites' images of
African-Americans and judgments of crime and punishment, but only for
black criminals who commit violent crimes, and only for punitive (vs.
preventive) policies. Because these are the circumstances which typica
lly surround the crime issue, we conclude that much of public opinion
in this domain is influenced by racial concerns.